Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 27
Posts 11 - 20

Der digitale Beifahrer – Damit die Hände am Lenkrad bleiben, sollen Bordcomputer zuhören

(The digital front-seat passenger - bord computers are supposed to listen in so that the hands stay on the steering wheel)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 26.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, texting, threat
Summary | A new bord computer is supposed to help drivers not only navigate to their destination and make hands-free phone calls, but also assisst them with texting. For safety reasons, they however take the liberty to withold an incoming message if the driver needs to be particularly focused. All this is voice operated.
Image Description | N/A

Heute: Anrede

(Today: form of adress)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | email, marketing, politeness, word/writing
Summary | The German distinction between two different registers for the secon person singular pronoun seems to have deteriorated online. The polite form is hardly ever used online, for instance in email communication as though the digital medium makes it okay to suspend all rules of politeness. Even online companies gear their their online marketing communication towards digital intimacy (using "Du" instead of "Sie") so that users/customers are more friendly and forgiving of their company.
Image Description | N/A

Gesagt und getan

(Said and done)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 29.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, Facebook, law
Summary | The German justice department is demanding that Facebook comply to local laws. They are planning to instate a new law that forces Facebook to remove illegal content (for instance cyberbullying, etc.) within 24 hours after it being reported. Facebook must also react to German language reports.
Image Description | N/A

Das Monster lebt

(The monster is alive)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 31.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, threat
Summary | Facebook is hiring thousands of new employees to battle cyberbullying on their platform and to remove offensive material as quickly as possible. But a couple thousand are not very many people to combat wrongdoings of 2 billion users. German politicians are trying to make Facebook comply with local laws about removing illegal content from the internet but Facebook is nowhere near fulfilling those requirements.
Image Description | A photograph of a man holding a smartphone showing the Facebook logo and the face of a monster.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo, male(s), smartphone

Kopfschuss: Glatte Eins!

(Shot to the head: A+!)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | game, gender, school, threat, youth
Summary | A school in Norway is offering a course in E-sport, i.e. playing online team sports in shooter video games like Counter:Strike. The course is very popular among the male students (only one female student has taken the course) and has shown that students at risk of failing the year tend to do better in school overall when they are in a video game class. They get boosts of self-confidence because they can hold presentations about something they are passionate about. The school wants to reflect their students' reality in their curriculum and video games are a passion of many students and a future job for some of them. Shooter games are less stigmatized in Norway than in Germany.
Image Description | Image of male students playing video games.
Image Tags | game, male(s), school

Gesucht: Putzkräfte fürs Netz

(Wanted: cleaning personnel for the net)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 10.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, cyberbullying, Facebook, fake news, law
Summary | Facebook is hiring thousands of people to check their platform for offensive content. Artificial intelligence and algorhythms have proven to be incapable of dealing with all nuances of human communication. They were not able to reliably identify cyberbullying content and fake news. Facebook is admitting the boundaries of technological possibilities and now hiring humans to do the job.
Image Description | Reuters image of a hand holding a smartphone in front of a screen showing the Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo, smartphone

What The Fuck

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 16.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, politics, social media, Twitter
Summary | The social media employee of the police department Mannheim tweeted out information about a seeming terror attack: a car had hit multiple people in a pedestrian only zone. She had tweeted that the suspect had been arrested. Other Twitter users however started aggressively demanding more information about the suspect, i.e. his race, heritage, religion, etc. The social media worker was shocked at how quickly people on Twitter made this a speculative far right-wing political issue and at somepoint even commented "WTF" in response to one of these tweets at her. Meanwhile people on Twitter were outraged that the police Twitter account would use such language.
Image Description | N/A

Paulinas Englischlehrer

(Paulina's English teacher)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, research/study, technology-free
Summary | Linguists are currently working on robots who can teach foreign languages to children. It is a new research field and it is being tested in several childcare institutions and kindergardens. The results show that children learn better when they are emotionally invested and that is the main advantage of a robot versus just a tablet.The robot is more humanoid and responds emotionally (with praise for correct answers for instance). Recent studies say that 70% of pre-schoolers user their parents' smartphones or tablets for more than 30 minutes a day when that should be the maximum screen time (including TV) a child has per day.
Image Description | A girl using the language learning robot.
Image Tags | female(s), school

"Geht mal aus dem Bild, ich google gerade"

("Get out of the picture, I'm googling something")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google
Summary | All innovations at Google include artificial intelligence. So does Google Lens: it enables users to take a picture of anything and get information about it delivered by Google. If one takes a picture of a flower, for instance, one learns its specific name and classification, how to care for it, as well as contact information of florist shops nearby. The image and pattern recognition software needed for such a service is within the realm of artificial intelligence.
Image Description | A Getty image of Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Image Tags | male(s)

"Wir wollen die Menschen aus ihrem Zombiesein aufwecken"

("We want to wake people up from their zombie existence")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 3.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game. It is different from virtual reality in that it uses the real topography around the player as the site of the game which is virtually enhanced with Pokémon which can be "caught". It was designed to make people engage with the outside world and each other while playing, to lead people into parks they never went to. The most effective way to do that nowadays is to create an incentive with the smartphone.
Image Description | Getty image of Pokémon Go players at night and a portrait of the interviewee.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

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