Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 12
Posts 1 - 10

YouTube battles ISIS with a redirect strategy

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 25.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, politics, threat, YouTube
Summary | YouTube is redirecting people who search for extremist materials to videos that show the pain terrorism causes in order to act against new people getting radicalized. While this may be a useful strategy, it is problematic that this move was incited by companies. YouTube had been struggling with advertisers pulling their ads from controversial videos.
Image Description | N/A

The limits of instant activism

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 28.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | A new book titled "Twitter and Tear Gas" by Zeynep Tufekci is coming out. It discusses the infuence of social media on protest culture. The author has been present in many recent protest movement: Occupy Wall Street, the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, the Tahrir Square protests, and many more. In her book, she concludes that social media help mobilize many people very quickly, as the anti-Trump marches have shown. However, this ease with which people are mobilized to attend a protest make the ties within the protest community looser making it difficult for the movements to overcome issues later on in the process.
Image Description | Image of the March on Washington in 1963.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Full stream ahead in YouTube election season

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 26.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Google, politics, research/study, TV, YouTube
Summary | In this election cycle, no one can ignore YouTube. This year it is clear that if one candidate does not advertise their campaign on YouTube they are going to lose. Data collected by Google shows that younger generations are far more likely to watch content on YouTube than on TV. Even 50% of babyboomers watch videos on YouTube. Also, YouTube has the advantage that users can share content with others on various platforms whereas on TV they can only watch the content.
Image Description | Image of a man using a tablet in front of a huge YouTube logo and screenshots of viral videos of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Image Tags | logo, male(s), tablet, YouTube

Germany springs to action over hate speech against migrants

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 6.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, politics, social media
Summary | Facebook has recently decided to comply with German law rather than their own corporate policies when it comes to hate language on their platform contributed by users from Germany. Germany is very strict about prohibiting hate language against minorities. Critics say this is a step in the wrong direction towards censorship.
Image Description | Protest crowd holding a canvas.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

President @realdonaldtrump

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 3.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, hashtags, politics, smartphone, Twitter
Summary | During his first 100 days, Trump tweeted a lot. His most used word in Twitter was "Great" (then: very, today, fake, news). His most common hashtag was "MAGA", the topic he most tweeted about was the media, and his favorite interjection is "Enojy!". Trump does not use a lot of emojis in his tweets, but his most common emoji is the American flag. Also, his most common hour for tweeting is 8am, and he mostly uses his iPhone.
Image Description | N/A

In search of 'lulz,' trolls hijack civic engagement

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Internet culture's sense of humor has become careless. A meme was recently circulated in Pennsyvania that said that one could vote online by just commenting the name of their candidate. Even though this was a joke, it was dangerously close to disenfranchising people of their votes. In the same way some people post anti-semitic or racist/sexist things and then claim to just do it to combat the tyranny of political correctness and not really meaning any harm. Such content however promotes extremism and is harmful - no matter the intentions.
Image Description | Man holding up Hillary Clinton toilet paper.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Melania Trump and the politics of airbrushing

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Instagram, politics, youth
Summary | The official portrait of the FLOTUS Melania Trump is highly retouched. Her face shows no wrinkles and looks artificial while her hair is perfectly in focus. While retouching is the norm nowadays, this particular portrait is just so obviously photoshopped that people are talking about it. It is really reminiscent of current photographing practices where one always slaps an Instagram filter on an image. This trend is being counteracted by some like Kate Winslet or Alicia Keys but the extensive retouching of images to achieve artificial perfection is accepted by large parts of the public.
Image Description | Portraits of Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Laua Bush.
Image Tags | female(s)

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

Today’s protest signs are sharper, meaner, funnier — and live on long after the rallies

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 2.2.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | Protest signs are becoming increasingly wittier as popular culture and politics converge by politics increasingly becoming entertainment. The protest sign are not only wittier but also live longer thanks to their digital footprint. The funniest/best protest signs are spread online and are seen by thousands of people nowhere near the protest which is why such signs may be remembered for longer.
Image Description | Various protesters with signs.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Police charge student with tweeting a threat after white supremacist petition circulated

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 17.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, politics, school, threat, Twitter
Summary | After a white supremacist leaflet has been circulated in a local high school, a student took to Twitter to announce that the school will be attacked. The police were able to identify the student and she was charged "on a juvenile citation with disruption of school activities" but was not incarcerated as she is a minor. The school spokesperson has voiced their great concern with the white supremacist material that has circulated in the school.
Image Description | White supremacist leaflet.
Image Tags | text

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