Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 57
Posts 51 - 57

New York Public Hospitals Use Emojis to Reach Young People About Sex

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.7.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, social media, youth
Summary | New York City hospitals are now trying to get young people's attention on social media to inform them about free, confidential sexual health services. The advertisement campaign includes emojis, for instance the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji or bird and bee emojis. They talked to youths in focus groups and determined that this might be the best way to reach them. The campaign is particularly important because many youth report that they do not approach their parents with questions concerning sexual health. Critics of the campaign however say that the advertisements might be too ambiguous and difficult to understand for people who are only just learning English.
Image Description | Two advertisements of the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji and bird and bee emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

Take a break from the election and read this story about emoji karaoke

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 8.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | A convention for emojis (Emojicon) taking place in a San Francisco mall attracts lots of emoji professionals and afficionados. There they learn about the Unicode Consortium - the non-profit organization that introduces new emojis. Everybody can submit an emoji design to Unicode but only 70 emojis are accepted per year. Unicode also never deletes an already existing emoji, so they have to keep the number of new entries low. The convention is full of fun activities, 'emoji karaoke' being one of them. A room full of people listen to songs and try to transcribe them with emojis in real time.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman in a peach emoji costume. People with emoji balloons. An emoji caricature artist.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

Secrets of the Emoji World, Now With Its Own Convention

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | An obscure committee called Unicode Consortium made up of various representatives of leading technological companies world-wide has the ultimate power over which content gets turned into emojis and which does not. An emoji convention (Emojicon) is organized in San Francisco, decorated with emoji-shaped balloons, beach balls, bean bags, emoji foods, people dressed up as emojis, and with many expert speakers from academia, the corporate world, as well as artists and designers. Many of them are unhappy with such a small unrepresentative group of a few (likely) middle-aged, white men should decide on which emojis are available to everyone around the world. The Unicode Consortium has too much power over the global visual language.
Image Description | A hand reaching into a pile of emoji cut-outs. A person dressed as the peach emoji being interviewed. Two people in costumes taking a selfie.
Image Tags | emojis, hand(s), selfie

We’re Finally Getting A Hijab Emoji

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 14.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | The Unicode Consortium has revealed a bunch of new emojis that will be implemented in its newest version. Included are an emoji with a woman wearing a hijab, a breastfeeding emoji, a mermaid emoji, different emojis with people sitting in the lotus position, and many more facial expession emojis such as a vomiting emoji and a crazy eyes laughing emoji. There is however no knowing whether smartphone companies or social media channels will include all new emojis on their devices/platforms.
Image Description | Some of the new emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

Emojis as art? Thumbs up from museum

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 26.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | Emojis have become part of most people’s everyday routine. The little images help users express feelings that they could never express like that in writing. They also help bridge the gap between face-to-face interaction and texting because linguists confirm that 70% of face-to-face communication depends on body language and other non-verbal cues. The MoMA in New York has recognized the significant impact that emojis have had on the world of design, marketing, and also art and are hosting an exhibit with the original set of emojis from 1999.
Image Description | “The original set of emoji, designed by Shigetaka Kurita, and released to Japanese cellphone users in 1999 — now acquired by MoMA. (Museum of Modern Art).”
Image Tags | emojis

Branding the Smiley Face: Emoji as Corporate Tools

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.6.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, threat
Summary | Messenger designers are thinking about incorporating techniques to “emojify” one’s message. The keyboard would suggest appropriate emojis to replace certain words of the message. A central organization called Unicode, where all major smartphone companies have voting rights, decides on which new emojis will be added. This society is effectively deciding what is and what is not part of our visual language. The new emoji feature that Apple offers can hamper users' individual creativity and expression. By using the 'emojify' feature, we let big companies control people's ways to express themselves.
Image Description | Digital image of a collection of new emojis and photograph of an iPhone with a chat (with emojis) open.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone

Group Weighs Expansion of the Emoji Vocabulary

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 26.10.2015
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | The Unicode Consortium decides which emojis get developed and which do not. Representatives of the most important smartphone companies are members along with “language grammarians”. Still, Unicode’s president is very clear about emojis not being a language because complex ideas cannot be communicated free of ambiguity by using only emojis. Also, different cultures use emojis differently (example of the eggplant emoji meaning a phallus in the US).
Image Description | Digital image: collage of emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

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