Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 32
Posts 11 - 20

WhatsApp wird zur geheimen Sache

(WhatsApp becomes a secret affair)

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Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 7.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | After repeatedly being criticized by the public for only poorly providing privacy to its users, WhatsApp has incorporated end-to-end encryption in its newest update. Now, federal security organizations can no longer spy on fathers sending their daughters celebratory emojis after their favorite football team has scored. This encryption is only needed by people who oppose privacy violation, criminals, and terrorists.
Image Description | N/A

Das Ende der Telefonbuchse naht

(The end of the telephone socket is approaching)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 7.2.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | texting, WhatsApp
Summary | Swisscom is changing the technology behind landline phone calls to the new VoIP (Voice over IP/Internet) technique, and because Swisscom has lost a lot of business to internet based instant messaging app WhatsApp, they are launching a messaging service called iO, which enables Swisscom clients to text other Swisscom clients for free and unlimited.
Image Description | Photograph in black and white of a woman using a rotary dial phone.
Image Tags | female(s)

Government secretary tweets nude ‘selfies’

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Newspaper | The Local
Date | 7.8.2014
Language | English
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | pornography, selfie, sexting
Summary | A Bernese office employee had been tweeting nude images from her office to her 11'000 followers. She works for the Swiss government, whose employment policies ask employees to only post thing on social media that they would be comfortable sharing with their co-workers and supervisors as well and to keep the Swiss government's reputation in mind even when they are off the clock. The secretary in question, who has participated in several hundred amateur porn films as is now confirmed, claims that her private life does not interfere with her professional life in any way and that they should be kept seperate. It is unclear how her employers will handle the situation.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman taking a selfie.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), selfie, smartphone

Porno-Sekretärin des Bundes wird freigestellt

(Porn secretary of the confederacy will be discharged)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 6.8.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | pornography, selfie, sexting
Summary | The 'porno secretary' (as she has been dubbed in the media) was discharged effective immediately. After her porn Twitter account became known to both the wider public and her employer, the secretary has lost her work position in the Federal Palace. She had posted nude and hardcore pornographic images from porn shooting sets and from her office workplace.
Image Description | Explicit photographs from the secretary's Twitter account with her face and nipples/genitalia pixelated.
Image Tags | female(s), selfie

Nachwehen zu den Nackt-Selfies aus dem Bundeshaus

(Aftermath of the nude selfies from the Federal Palace)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 6.6.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | pornography, selfie, sexting
Summary | The secretary who posted nude selfies taken at her workplace, which is the parlamentarian offices of the Swiss Federal Palace, on Twitter also has a career in porn next to her office job. Her supervisors claim that they had no previous knowledge of her pornographic Twitter account. The employee in question still answers her office phone meaning that she has not lost her job yet.
Image Description | N/A

Freizügige Sekretärin: Nackt-Selfies aus dem Bundeshaus

(Revealing secretary: nude selfies from the Federal Palace)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 6.8.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | politics, pornography, sexting
Summary | A secretary working in the Swiss Federal Palace in Bern has been regularly tweeting nude images of herself from the workplace. Experts now discuss whether this is reason enough to dismiss her. Although she has not crossed an explicitly defined line, the secretary's actions can be argued to be a threat to the security of of her workplace. Had she been a higher official, this misconduct would have certainly qualified for her dismissal.
Image Description | N/A

Wegen WhatsApp – Jungen fehlt Gesprächsstoff

(Young people don’t have anything to talk about because of WhatsApp)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 3.8.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Young people in Britain and Switzerland spend more time using WhatsApp than actually meeting with their friends. Because all personal news can be shared on WhatsApp much more conveniently than face-to-face thanks to group chats, young people run out of things to talk about when they actually meet. Most young people however become critical of their new media use once they have spent a few years on social media and start optimizing their online activity.
Image Description | Photograph showing hands holding smartphones.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Wir wollen zeigen, dass wir gut Englisch können

(We want to show that we are good at English)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 29.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | anglicisms, code-switching, emojis, texting, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Young people increasingly communicate in English with each other (especially digitally). This has become a way to imitate their idols, who are largely English-speakers, and to exclude adults from their communicative code. Linguists are delighted by young people's creativity; they use different languages and emojis available to them even though their competence may not be perfect.
Image Description | Series of four screenshots of WhatsAspp conversations showing English/Swiss-German code-switching.
Image Tags | WhatsApp

Les jeunes parlent romand

(Young people speak Romand (Swiss French))

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Newspaper | Le Matin
Date | 18.5.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, research/study, texting, What's up Switzerland, WhatsApp
Summary | Interview with Federica Diémoz at the University of Neuchâtel. She talks about a study related to the different expressions used in the Swiss French part of Switzerland. People also use their local expressions in text messages. The "What's up Switzerland" project is going to analyze WhatsApp messages. From what researchers have observed so far, people sometimes use regional expressions and don't always write the same way. They also add emoticons and images that replace words.
Image Description | Photograph of the interviewee, Federica Diémoz.
Image Tags | female(s)

Blaue Häkchen vergiften die Liebe

(Blue ticks are poisoning love)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 7.11.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | misunderstanding, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp programmers may have thought that they would improve communication by introducing a ‘message read’ notification in the form of two blue ticks. This new feature however is making room for much more confusion and misunderstandings. If a person reads a message and does not respond instantly, the other person might think it is because they are sulking, for instance. This is why users should discuss matters of the heart face to face and just share trivial things such as shopping lists via WhatsApp – to avoid misunderstandings of non-verbal cues.
Image Description | Screenshot of a tweet representing a scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. George Peppard's message "I love you" is well received by Audrey Hepburn (two blue ticks).
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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