Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 125
Posts 41 - 50

As Elites Switch to Texting, Watchdogs Fear Loss of Transparency

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, politics, privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | The powerful elites are using the end-to-end-encrypted WhatsApp to communicate sensitive information. Such strategies are adopted by politicians, high-profile representatives of major companies, and Wallstreet banker. The latter are lawfully obligated to save all communications for possible inspection but WhatsApp enables them to escape that law.
Image Description | Image of a man talking on the phone and another man reading some paperwork.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Zuckerbergs Eine-Welt-Laden

(Zuckerberg's one-world-shop)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 21.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics, WhatsApp
Summary | Zuckerberg has written an open letter stating that he wants to create a world community on Facebook with their 2 bio users. Although he does not state it explicitly, it reads as an anti-nationalism manifesto. Facebook plays an important role in politics and so does WhatsApp. Some villages in Kenya have WhatsApp groups including all citizens as well as the politicians.
Image Description | Finger pointing at portraits of women.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s)

Erdogan schaltet sich auf die Handys der Türken

(Erdogan tunes into the cell phones of Turkish residents)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 16.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, privacy, texting, threat
Summary | The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously sent all his citizens a text message during the attempted government coup urging them to keep fighting the rebels. Now, a year after the attempted coup, he has tuned into the citizen's phones again and has recorded a voice message which is played on all smartphones when they try to make a call. In the message he makes the defeat of the coup seem heroic and by making it a voice message he forces all citizens to listen to it first if they want to make a phone call.
Image Description | Tweets from people who are shocked by the recodorded voice message from Erdogan.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

Images Worth a Thousand Tweets

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | GIFs, politics
Summary | Pieces of technology sometimes alter political campaigns (e.g. Calvin Coolidge with the radio, or JFK with the first TV debate). During the 2016 Presidential election, GIFs may have influenced the election. How so? If you think about memorable events from the campaign, those that seem to stick have been reduced to GIFs (e.g. Trump Faces GIF). GIFs show us another (more human) side of politicians.
Image Description | N/A

So kämpfen Fraktionslose um Aufmerksamkeit

(This is how independent politicians vie for attention)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 31.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics
Summary | Politicians who are not affiliated with any established party have a hard time being heard by potential voters. They have now discovered Facebook. Publishing their candidacy and their political view on policies on Facebook gets them a lot of attention. Some even pay money for Facebook to advertise their accounts.
Image Description | Image of the parliament chamber of Hamburg and portraits of the mentioned politicians.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

"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)

Darum ist Pokémon Go bei Muslimen verpönt

(This is why Pokémon Go is frowned upon by muslims)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 6.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, game, law, politics, privacy, threat
Summary | Many muslim authorities in varioius countries such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have declared Pokémon Go as wildly inappropriate for muslims. It references othher religions (with symbols) which allow for multiple gods along side each other, it propagates Darwin's theory of evolution, and most importantly: it constitutes gambling which is prohibited by the Qur'an. This does not mean that the state in Malaysia enforces that religious advice as a law. Non-muslim people are also worried about Pokémon Go but not because of ideological issues but because it can be seen as a surveillance scam and so a privacy breach hazard.
Image Description | Men playing Pokémon Go and portraits of a few male experts mentioned in the article.
Image Tags | game, male(s), smartphone

Afro-Frisur einer Schülerin wird zum Politikum

(Afro hair of a student becomes a political issue)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 2.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, Facebook, gender, hashtags, politics, school, Twitter
Summary | A black girl at a high school in Pretoria in South Africa was chastised for wearing her hair naturally in an afro. This resulted in a lot of backlash against the school on social media under the hasthag #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh. As many as 28'000 people signed an online petition to end racism at schools and major polititians condemned the chastising of wearing natural black hair.
Image Description | A black woman doing another black woman's hair in a salon.
Image Tags | female(s)

Texts Live On, but That's Often Forgotten in Politics

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 12.8.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | email, politics, privacy, texting
Summary | Politicians seem to forget an important rule: do not write a text message that could bring serious consequences if it appeared on the front page of a newspaper. In the George Washington Bridge scandal, it was said that Christina Genovese Renna (one of Chris Christie's aides) had texted a colleague that if his boss's emails were found, they would reveal that he was plotting to block traffic to the bridge. If you are a public servant, you should know that you can't send any confidential text messages. Text messages are often perceived as a "thoughtless" form of communication, which can have serious consequences.
Image Description | N/A

Blue State

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 28.8.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics
Summary | Facebook users have maybe noticed that their facebook feeds have become bluer or redder, especially in the last year. They may have seen posts from celebrities, candidates themselves, unknown media sources, or friends. Facebook has also been a new source for political news. There are pieces of news that are only made for Facebook and that are made to reach Facebook users in particular. Media companies want people to share the posts they have in front of them; Facebook is thus an intermediary between publishers and audience. With the above strategy and the fact that Facebook users have access to their feeds all the time (through their smartphone), it became obvious that Facebook was more than just a source of news.
Image Description | N/A

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