Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8
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
Ausländer raus
(Foreigners out)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 1.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, social media, threat, word/writing
Summary | Online comment sections on social media and news sites are full of hateful, wrong language. The problem with this is that the discourse about, say, foreigners and asylum seekers is dominated by negative words like "flood" and "chaos". Even the word "foreigner" is misleading becuase the world is not fundamentally divided into locals and foreigners but all of them are equal humans who happen to be born in one place or another. If we want that discourse to change, we must use the platforms which we are able to influence by responding to every hate comment in order to neutralize the discourse.
Image Description | N/A
Ignoranz ist Stärke
(Ignorance is strength)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 3.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | fake news, politics, privacy, smartphone, social media, threat
Summary | Kellyanne Conways term "alternative facts" remind of Orwell's fictional language Newspeak which also changes meanings by renaming. Many facts of contemporary life (especially under the Trump administration) remind of dystopian novels "1984" by G. Orwell and "Brave New World" by A. Huxley. We all carry smartphones with us at all times with which we can send information but which also receive and document information about us like our location, who else is in that location, our communications, purchases, and so on. Privacy has become impossible in the digital age.
Image Description | Images and videos of the film "1984" and George Orwell as well as the news clip where Kellyanne Conway mentions "alternative facts".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), TV
Dieses Buch trotzt sogar Netflix
(This book even defies Netflix)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 30.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, social media, technology-free, TV
Summary | Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Barcelona tetralogy can compete with the endless entertainment of Netflix and smartphones. Books have had it hard as an entertainment medium in the age of endless social media threads and never-stopping, action-packed Netflix series. While Ruiz Zafón's books are not literary masterpieces, they succeed in captivating readers so that they do not even desire to check their smartphones for notifications for hours at a time!
Image Description | N/A
Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme
(The sticker flood is on its way)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, language threat, marketing, social media
Summary | Emoticons (f.i. ":-D") and abbreviations (f.i. "LOL") have trickled down from "geek speak" and established themselves in the mainstream. Emojis are nowadays ever present in our digital communication as well as in other arenas such as film or advertising. Now various social media platforms, among them Facebook, offer users various palettes of stickers. They are larger versions of emojis and are sent as an image file rather than included on the keyboard as a letter. Because many sticker palettes need to be purchased, a whole economy is beginning to form: The Japanese messaging app Line has sold over $250 mio worth of stickers last year. We do not need to fear that emojis and co. will replace language as we know it.
Image Description | Commodified emojis in various forms (as balls, as tattoos, as bed sheets, as food, on clothing, as masks, etc.) and Facebook messenger chats using/purchasing sticker collections.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, male(s), social media
«Sie agieren wie ein Schwarm»
(«They behave like a swarm»)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 12.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | Extremist groups flourish on social media. It is designed to make users happy, to mirror their preferences, and encapsulates them in a bubble of their own interests isolating them from opposed content. This is very dangerous when people slip into violent extremist circles online. The government and social media corporations should work together on breaking this bubble effect to make sure everyone sees a piece of 'reality' every once in a while.
Image Description | Photograph of a smashed window in front of a Twitter icon.
Image Tags | logo, Twitter
Klick und weg
(Click and gone)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 9.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Snapchat, social media
Summary | The new hot app is Snapchat. It has the reputation of being casual and fun without the pressure of a perfect online presence such as with Facebook or Instagram. Snapchat users decide who can see which content, and the content does not linger on the platform. Its worth has just been estimated at $16 bio but some experts doubt that the app has quite that much economic potential. While there is a lot of advertising potential on the Snapchat platform, owner Evan Spiegel is being very uncooperative in providing information about the users to enable corporations to tailor advertising to the specific users.
Image Description | N/A
Jetzt ist es da, nun ist es weg
(Now it is here, now it is gone)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 4.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Snapchat, social media, youth
Summary | 59% of 14 to 19-year olds use Snapchat (not specified whether in US/Switzerland/world-wide) while only 6% watch television daily. Snapchat is quickly catching up with Facebook in the amount of content created by users. While Snapchat has become famous for its function to send images with captions and drawings that self-destruct after a few seconds, many new formats are now available on Snapchat: users can create collage-like “Stories” of their recent snaps that stay on the platform for 24 hours. Corporations create high-quality digital content that they distribute through Snapchat’s ‘”Discover” function, and journalists document events in real time through “Live-Stories”.
Image Description | Video (interview) of Snapchat users, and series of screenshots of snaps.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Snapchat
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