Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 29
Posts 11 - 20

5 easy and simple ways to protect your privacy online - how to prepare for the next big threat

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 18.8.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | privacy, threat
Summary | Privacy expert Mark Weinstein shares some tips to protect your privacy online: use safe internet browsers, be careful where you search (for instance, Google saves all of your searches), WhatsApp is not as private as what you might think, use a cloud storage that can't see your information, etc. We should be worried about our privacy in the future as governments are trying to get backdoor access to apps and digital devices. Millennials seem to be the ones that are most concerned about their online privacy.
Image Description | Photographs of a woman in front of social media icons, two hands using computer mice and a keyboard, fingers touching a screen displaying the Google search bar, WhatsApp icon, cloud storage icons, hand holding a smartphone in front of the Facebook logo, portrait of Tim Cook, and Facebook "laughing" reaction button
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, female(s), Google, hand(s), keyboard, male(s), smartphone, social media, WhatsApp

"Heute wird einfach gute Stimmung gemacht"

("Nowadays, it's all about creating a good mood")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, selfie, Snapchat, social media
Summary | Selfies on social media can have huge currency. They serve celebrities and politicians to style themselves as down-to-earth. Taylor Swift further includes cats in her selfies for the additional cuteness factor. Angela Merkel's selfie with a refugee has served to send the message that refugees are welcome in Germany. Selfies can also be seen as inspired by emojis; people mimick the facial expressions or use a Snapchat filter to emulate emojis.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee holding a smiley balloon.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)

Die Frau, die ungewollt mit Emojis ein Haus mietete

(The woman who inadvertently rented a house with emojis)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, misunderstanding
Summary | The debate around whether emojis count as words or seriously meaningful content is very heated - not only in academics but also in law. The Oxford English dictionary only reheated that fire by choosing an emoji as word of the year. Multiple law cases have centered on misunderstandings around emoji use, most recently a case where a woman indicated interest in renting a house with emojis (flamenco dancer, dancer girls, squirrel, comet, a victory sign, and a bottle of Champagne). The house owner sued her for using misleading emojis after she decided not to rent the house after all.
Image Description | An image of a woman's hand holding a smartphone and picking out an emoji and a portrait of the Israely judge who worked on the emoji case.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Brauchen wir ein Emoji mit nicht-binärer Geschlechtsidentität?

(Do we need an emoji with a non-binary gender identity?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 14.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, gender, research/study
Summary | A new package of emojis will be released soon. One of them represents a person who is neither entirely male nor female, i.e. of non-binary gender identity. It is questionable whether it is worthwhile to represent such a small minority, seeing that there is no redhead emoji either because only 2% of the global population are redheads. A linguist of the research project "What's Up, Germany?" however argues that having a gender inclusive emoji is sending a powerful sign and can affect society via language in the long-term.
Image Description | A Getty image of a woman vomiting a rainbow, a tweet about the gender inclusive emoji, and a few GIFs of celebrities.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, male(s)

Sag noch einmal Wasserpistole!

(Say water pistol one more time!)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 2.8.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, threat
Summary | Apple will replace the pistol emoji with a water pistol emoji as a political statement. Apple has been known to take political sides but it is questionable whether censoring guns will help any cause, especially because the bomb, sword, and knife emojis are not being removed.
Image Description | A photoshopped scene from Pulp Fiction showing Samuel L. Jackson pointing a water pistol emoji.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)

Muslimische Smileys

(Muslim smileys)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | An app with muslim-themed emojis is now available. The emojis can however only be sent as image files and not integrated in the keyboard. They would have to be included by the Unicode Consortium for that to be possible and an Australian is already petitioning to Unicode to include muslim emojis. Meanwhile, Indonesia wants to force Unicode to block all emojis depicting homosexuality within the country because it clashes with their Islamic morals and values.
Image Description | The Muslim Emojis in use.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

Es flitzt der Rollstuhl

(The bolting wheelchair )

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 16.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, diversity, emojis
Summary | A German organization for the inclusion of people with disabilities into public life is offering a set of Inklumojis: emojis that depict people with disabilities. These include a man in a wheelchair with fire shooting out of the back suggesting speed, athletes with leg prosthetics, a romantic couple holding hands, one of them with a prosthetic arm, and many more. Emojis can normalize people with disabilities much easier than big advertising campaigns which is why they will attempt to have their emojis included by the Unicode Consortium.
Image Description | Emojis of people with diabilities.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme

(The sticker flood is on its way)

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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

Am I using this emoji right, or did I accidentally just sext someone?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 17.2.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, misunderstanding, sexting
Summary | The Daily Mail released a list of emojis with double meanings. Some seemingly innocent emojis might in fact have another X-rated meaning. For instance, the mailbox emoji can mean "sex". You can use any emoji to talk about sex, but some are being used more than others. For example, the eggplant emoji is now widely accepted as a way to represent a penis. Most emojis can have a double meaning; they can be interpreted at face value or mean something completely different.
Image Description | Photograph of a man scratching his head, Twitter video of a man explaing the hidden meanings of emojis, and screenshots of tweets.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s), Twitter

Watch out! Emojis may be taking over your life

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Newspaper | Times of India
Date | 15.7.2016
Language | English
Country | India
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | Emoji is becoming a new global language and everyone is using it. Now, people simply use visual signs to express their feelings. Emojis are efficient because they complement words, and they allow people to fill in a gap, which is like using gestures along speech. The majority of people think that using emojis is not professional.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman with an emoji head, photograph of a woman with a red lip emoji/sticker, and photograph of a man with a yellow balloon head.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

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