Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8
Mit diesem Gadget kannst du Sprachbarrieren überwinden
(With this gadget you can overcome language barriers)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 7.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | translation
Summary | There is a new invention from China: an in-ear device that can directly translate speech. It lags three seconds behind real-time - plenty of time for silence to become awkward. It is also dependent on a wireless internet connection. So far it can translate these languages into Mandarin: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English, German.
Image Description | Getty images of three women with the German, Spanish, and Italian flag painted on their faces, as well as Getty images of a woman and a man using headphones together, buttons labeled with different languages, as well as GIFs of cats speaking French and Japanese and a film reference GIF (Anchorman).
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, male(s), text
Googles künstlich intelligenter Chat-Freund
(Google's artificially intelligent chat friend)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 8.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, marketing, social media
Summary | Google is launching a new messaging app called Allo. Messaging apps are hailed to be the new thing after social media. Especially messaging apps lie the Chinese WeChat or Allo which have an AI assistant with which users can easily get simple information from within the app, transmit payments, or open a small shop that operates through the app.
Image Description | Reuters image of a man presenting Allo at a conference and a few screenshots of conversations with Allo's chatbot.
Image Tags | Google, male(s), text
«Jemandem zu sagen, er solle sich ficken, ist ziemlich schlimm»
(«Telling soeone to go fuck himself is pretty bad»)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | anglicisms, language threat, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | Linguist Elisabeth Stark is research texting communication with a corpus of 18000 text messages and even more WhatsApp messages. She says that about 2-3% of the words are anglicisms and that their amount does not seem to be rising rapidly - the word "fuck" for instance is still too strong for most German speakers. In German, sex is too taboo for taboo language. Her data also shows that Swiss people choose the local dialect rather than the standard variety when texting. Most people's langugage competencies are not compromised by this informal communication, most can adhere to conventions when a formal register is appropriate.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee and a Keystone image of a protest with a sign reading "fuck".
Image Tags | female(s), text
Schweizer Firmen setzen auf Bots
(Swiss firms put their money on bots)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 27.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, privacy
Summary | Many companies in Switzerland are testing out chatbots to replace their telephone customer service. Many company chatbots can be contacted via the Facebook messenger. They are quite useful because they can organize tasks according to content and delegate them to the appropriate departments or help the customers themselves. Experts demand full transparency about what happens to customer data created in chatbot uses.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman's torso holding a smartphone, some chatbot chat screenshots and graphs.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text
Hey, du Mensch!
(Hey, you human! )
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 15.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, texting
Summary | Facebook has recently followed the footsteps of other large companies and implemented a chatbot in its messenger. Chatbots as conversational user interfaces are increasingly popular because smartphone users are reported to grow tired of having to download so many different apps. By enriching a social media service such as Facebook with a chatbot, users can enquire about things (e.g the weather) without changing platforms and using a mode that is familiar and comfortable for users: casual texting. The article however criticizes that chatbot technology is not very advanced and that it does not resemble human interaction yet.
Image Description | Photograph of a man texting in front of the Facebook Messenger logo, and screenshot of a Messenger chat.
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), smartphone, text
BTDTGTTSAWIO – das FBI erklärt Slang
(BTDTGTTSAWIO – the FBI explains slang)
Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 19.6.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, texting, youth
Summary | The FBI has published a list of social media/messaging app abbreviations which helps them in their hunt for criminals and which could help the broader public to keep an eye on their children. Some of these abbreviations are: SOMSW (someone over my shoulder watching), NIFOC (naked in front of computer), and BTDTGTTSAWIO (been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out). The FBI’s publication has been criticized for being irrelevant because these abbreviations are rarely used.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone and texting. Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone and texting.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, text
Schriftliche Forschheiten: Vom Niedergang der Höflichkeit
(Written briskness: On the demise of politeness)
Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.9.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, language threat, politeness, school, texting, WhatsApp, word/writing
Summary | Communication researchers agree that politeness in professional writing has decreased with the rise of digital communication. Rules of formal writing are omitted: what was“Honored Professor So-and-so” is now a simple “Hello”. Both students and also professors are reported to have a relaxed level of formality in email exchanges. This is usually seen as an influence of texting, where traditional messages of respect are omitted, but it can also be argued that the new brief communication style is a form of respecting the addressee’s time by writing efficiently.
Image Description | Photograph of a female texting; the shot does not show the person's face but emphasizes the phone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text
Viele, viele bunte Symbole
(Many, many colorful symbols)
Newspaper | St. Galler Tagblatt
Date | 15.10.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, emojis, language threat, texting, What's up Switzerland
Summary | Emojis are frequently incorporated in text messages and are slightly addictive. Christa Dürscheid from ‘What’s Up, Switzerland?’ says that they are a must-have for ‘insiders' . Even older users are getting used to emojis since there is such a huge selection from which to choose. Emojis do however not replace written communication but serve to indicate emotions or add emphasis.
Image Description | Digital image of a chat bubble with words in German and emojis (beers and smiling face).
Image Tags | emojis, text
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