Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 39
Posts 31 - 39

WhatsApp frisst Apps

(WhatsApp devours apps)

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Newspaper | Focus Online
Date | 28.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | video communication, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp has been running a deficit since Mark Zuckerberg bought the app for $ 22 bio. WhatsApp developer Jan Koum is not worried about profits – he states that their number one goal is to recruit more WhatsApp users and the opportunity to profit would establish itself later on. WhatsApp is looking to expand its services to video communication and communication with businesses. WhatsApp users should, f.i., be able to make a reservation at a restaurant via WhatsApp rather than having to make a phone call.
Image Description | Videos/Interviews about WhatsApp, its features, and its future.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, WhatsApp

WhatsApp erlaubt PDF-Versand

(WhatsApp can send PDFs)

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Newspaper | Kontakter
Date | 3.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | email, WhatsApp
Summary | Now WhatsApp users can send PDFs through the messaging app both to single and to multiple contacts via group chats. This is seen as a further step for WhatsApp to replace e-mails entirely.
Image Description | N/A

Wer nicht snapt, ist out

(Who doesn’t snap is out)

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Newspaper | B.Z. (Berlin)
Date | 1.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Snapchat is the new hot social media channel for the German youth. Now that the parent generation is uding Facebook and WhatsApp, teenagers are looking for digital spaces free of parental supervision. Snapchat is more aimed at visual rather than verbal communication, though now audio and video calls can be made. The article lists three new (not necessarily messaging) apps that are gaining popularity amongst young people: Miitomo, musical.ly, WeMesh.
Image Description | Screenshots of two snaps, and digital image of the Snapchat logo.
Image Tags | female(s), logo, Snapchat

WhatsApp Finally Adds Fully-Encrypted Video Calling Service

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp announced that it will soon be possible to have end-to-end encrypted video calls. Since WhatsApp has been acquired by Facebook, they have been able to use Facebook's huge infrastucture which enabled them to include online calls and now video calls, too. Users seem very worried about government surveillance, especially now that Donald Trump has been elected. WhatsApp still keeps dossiers of their users' contact lists and other meta-data but not of the content of their messages. Initially in the WhatsApp/Facebook merger, the companies ensured users that their data of the two platforms would not be connected but their privacy policy has recently changed, breaking this promise.
Image Description | Getty image of a hand holding an iPhone with just a huge WhatsApp icon on it. A video explaining the new adjustments to WhatsApp's user privacy policy.
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)

Statt Whatsapp bitte wieder den Telefonalarm

(Instead of WhatsApp please bring back the telephone chain)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 1.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp group chats are convenient to spread messages quickly. The only problem is that all members can contribute to a WhatsApp chat, and if everybody responds to an announcement, these group chats can get very annoying because one gets notified of everyone's contribution.
Image Description | Photograph of an adult male looking at his smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Digitale Bilderflut: Raubt uns nicht die Phantasie!

(Digital image flood: Don’t rob us of our imagination!)

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Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 9.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, WhatsApp
Summary | New messaging apps make it really easy to send snapshots and users have increasingly conventionalized the inclusion of image material in their messages. The image material is usually a quick snap of the situation the sender is in (morning coffee, etc.) or of something the sender is messaging about (herb garden, etc.), as if to provide evidence of their actually experiencing/doing something. Some voices now proclaim the replacement of language by images but the same prognosis was made in the mid-19th century when postcards were invented. What might suffer by our inflationary sharing of photographs is our imagination.
Image Description | Photograph of adults taking pictures of the Mona Lisa; the shot mostly shows hands and three smartphones.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Schulmädchen im Internet

(School girls on the internet)

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Newspaper | die Weltwoche
Date | 12.5.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Snapchat, threat, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Teenage girls still live struggling with the same pressure as earlier generations; the only difference is that now social media are here to enhance them. The number of followers quantifies popularity and the longevity of content online can easily ruin somebody’s reputation for good. Having an account on WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other social media is compulsory at ages as young as 11 years old unless one wants to become isolated.
Image Description | Illustration of a girl and her digital devices; she is surrounded by elements representing social media and internet life.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), smartphone, social media

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