Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 7
Posts 1 - 7

Bizarre tweet, weird explanation

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 1.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | President Trump's latest Tweet seems to be interrupted mid-sentence featuring a mistyped word: "covfefe". The news media have been reporting about covfefe for hours with millions of people cracking jokes about it on Twitter and other social media. This alleged mistake (which was taken down after five hours) managed to dominate the political discourse in the US rather than any actual pressing issues like the Presidents possible ties to Russia.
Image Description | Sean Spicer at a press conference and Donald Trumps Twitter feed.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

Is China Outsmarting America in A.I.?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, computer programming, politics
Summary | China is surpassing the US in artificial intelligence research. They succeeded in getting to human-level language recognition a year before Microsoft did. China is also increasing funding for artificial intelligence research massively while President Trump is cutting research funding. The Chinese interent giant Baidu has succeeded in understanding very subtle differences between Chinese dialects.
Image Description | Images of a German AI researcher in China with his machines and students, a Tweet, and an auditorium watching a human playing a board game against Google AI.
Image Tags | female(s), Google, male(s), Twitter

What Happened to Who?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, grammar, language threat, politics, Twitter
Summary | More and more politicians have begun replacing the relative pronoun "who" with "that" in sentences like ''people that come with a legal visa and overstay''. Although some dictionaries say this is an acceptable for, the New York Times' style sheet does not condone using "that" instead of "who". It denies the mentioned persons their humanity. This trend is unsurprising considering that our communication is increasingly happening on platforms like Twitter that only allow 140 characters so that we invent loads of abbreviations like "LOL" and "TTYL".
Image Description | Artwork copying Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and a few high-profile Tweets with spelling mistakes.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter

Merkel says big internet firms 'distort perception': Chancellor demands Facebook and Google make their algorithms public

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 28.10.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, Google, marketing, politics, privacy
Summary | Merkel wants Facebook and Google to be more transparent and reveal the algorithms that select stories people see. She claimed that those algorithms distort our perception of reality. Internet giants don't agree with that; they said that viewers have access to a wide range of opinions.
Image Description | Photograph of Angela Merket speaking at a conference, photograph of the Facebook logo with the reaction buttons, and Twitter logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo, Twitter

On Twitter, a Battle Among Political Bots

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.12.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, fake news, politics, Twitter
Summary | People on social media are often discussing/debating with bots when it comes to politics. A lot of bots are created to misinform the public (they are called protests bots or propaganda bots). During the 2016 US Presidential election, many tweets with the hashtag MAGA or CrookedHillary came from automated bots.
Image Description | Photograph of people at a rally for Trump, photograph of a street with many police cars, and screenshots of several tweets
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter

Facebook blocks Russia Today from posting until day after Trump's inauguration

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Date | 20.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics
Summary | Facebooked has revoked posting rights of multimedia content for the Facebook page of Russian news publication Russia Today. They had reposted a video from elsewhere and thereby committed a copyright violation. Russia Today reacted furiously because this block keeps them from covering Donald Trump's inauguration.
Image Description | Russia Today Twitter and Facebook posts.
Image Tags | Facebook, Twitter

Trump literally holds the world's attention in the palm of his hand

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 17.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | Twitter is the perfect medium for Donald Trump. Short, polarizing, and not particularly throuroughly argued but memorable statements emulate his brand. Often he tweets very aggressively and without much content. Hillary Clinton usually tweets links to further multimedial material or engages with powerful supporters on Twitter but Donald Trump's tweets are much more often retweeted.
Image Description | Tweets of Donald Trump.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

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