Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 13
Posts 1 - 10

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

To Fight Critics, Donald Trump Aims to Instill Fear in 140-Character Doses

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media
Summary | Donald Trump is known for his bullying, he is very good at finding other people's greatest weaknesses and repepatedly hitting them right there. One case of a woman who criticized him on Twitter for being a poor debater has shown how stubbornly he keeps insulting and degrading his critics. He behaves exactly like a stereotypical "mean girl" and recruits his followers to help him with his cyberbullying.
Image Description | Donald Trump speaking to a crowd of people.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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

"Für viele ist Politik wie Bärchenwurst"

("For many, politics is like bear deli meat")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, social media, youth
Summary | It is very difficult to get young people today engaged in politics. Political parties operate with archaic patterns of communication and youths do not identify with them anymore. Some young politicians try to address young people on social media to animate them to at least go vote. The tried to imitate the Ice Bucket Challenge and tried to launch an "I'm voting" challenge where users nominate each other to vote.
Image Description | Image of a pro EU protest in the UK.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

La méthode Suzi LeVine: connectée

(Suzi LeVine's method: connected)

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Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 25.11.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | The future ex US ambassador in Switzerland used social media a lot during her mandate. Being active on social media allows proximity, intuitivity, and freedom. Suzi LeVine said that social networks are the perfect example of direct democracy.
Image Description | Photograph of Suzi Levine and three other people dressed up for Halloween
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Ignoranz ist Stärke

(Ignorance is strength)

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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

Redes sociales en las primarias del PSOE: una competición desigual

(Social networks in the PSOE primaries: an uneven competition)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 21.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | hashtags, politics, research/study, social media, Twitter
Summary | The PSOE candidates in Spain use social media differently in their campaign. Sánchez knows the language of social networks very well and knows how to use them. He is the most active candidate on social media. Lopez was the first one to have a Twitter account and uses the social network intensively. However, he doesn't use the network the same way Sanchez uses it. Díaz only posted 670 tweets and has 115000 followers. Moreover, her language is not actualized; she uses the at sign @ too much. A study analyzed the online community of the candidates. When Díaz started using the hashtag #100por100PSOE, some people started attacking and criticizing her using the same hashtag. There are also multiple analytical tools that show different statistics regarding the candidates and their online campaign.
Image Description | Screenshots of the three candidates' Twitter profiles, and five different charts/graphs related to the candidates and their online campaign
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s), Twitter

Big data’s power is terrifying. That could be good news for democracy

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 6.3.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | fake news, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Big data makes big new innovations possible. It has already been assumed that recent elections were manipulated by fake news targeted to gullable individuals on social media. Other people are looking into options of how big data can be used to improve democracy, for instance the Pirate Party in Iceland.
Image Description | An illustration of hands 'cracking' a computer and an image of female Icelandic politicians from the Pirate Party.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), keyboard

Fighting fake news: societies using technology to search for truth

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 0.0.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, fake news, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Many countries are trying to combat fake news and urging Facebook to find ways of combatting fake news. They influence elections by deceiving people and that is a great problem. It is nearly impossible to identify fake news with a program, it takes a human. Facebook is now allowing users to flag suspicious content, which is then reviewed and if deemed fake, labeled as such and displayed with a lower priority. Fake news are not taken off of Facebook because that would be censorship.
Image Description | Shutterstock images of protesters against fake news.
Image Tags | female(s), text

No, wealth isn't created at the top. It is merely devoured there

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 30.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, social media, threat
Summary | The new rising technology firms like Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber are the new class of rentiers. The do not create anything new, they claim control over goods and services and cash in on transactions made on the platform they provide. That is all they do: provide a platform. It is only profitable because people willingly share content and offer their services on these sites. But these firms also have not invented the technology (internet, computer devices, etc.): that technology was developed with the tax payer's money. So technically they are just selling and reselling already existing goods - like a rentier.
Image Description | Getty image of a protester, an iPhone, the Facebook campus, a bunch of bank signs, and a Mexcan capitalist.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text

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