Communicative functions of emoji sequences on Sina Weibo

First Monday ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Ge ◽  
Susan C. Herring
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Graphical Language ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Further Development

The popular press is currently rife with speculation that emoji are becoming a global, digitally-mediated language. Sequences of emoji that function like verbal utterances potentially lend strong support to this claim. We employ computer-mediated discourse analysis to analyze the pragmatic meanings conveyed through emoji sequences and their rhetorical relations with accompanying text, focusing on posts by social media influencers and their followers on a popular Chinese social media platform. The findings show that the emoji sequences can function pragmatically like verbal utterances and form relations with textual propositions, although their usage differs from textual utterances in several respects. We also observed user innovations that make the sequences more language like, although there is not as yet a fixed grammar of emoji sequences. We characterize this emoji use as an emergent graphical language, with the caveats that it is not yet a fully-formed language and that the Chinese emoji language that is emerging is different from the English variety, and therefore emoji are not a universal language. In order to promote the further development of emoji language(s), we advance recommendations for emoji design grounded in linguistic principles.

Analyzing Blending Social and Mass Media Audiences through the Lens of Computer-Mediated Discourse

2015 ◽  
pp. 1281-1304
Author(s):  
Asta Zelenkauskaite
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Automated Analysis ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Audience Analysis ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse

In recent years, mass media content has undergone a blending process with social media. Large amounts of text-based social media content have not only shaped mass media products, but also provided new opportunities to access audience behaviors through these large-scale datasets. Yet, evaluating a plethora of audience contents strikes one as methodologically challenging endeavor. This study illustrates advantages and applications of a mixed-method approach that includes quantitative computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) and automated analysis of content frequency. To evaluate these methodologies, audience comments consisting of Facebook comments and SMS mobile texting to Italian radio-TV station RTL 102.5 were analyzed. Blended media contents through computer-mediated discourse analysis expand horizons for theoretical and methodological audience analysis research in parallel to established audience analysis metrics.

Analyzing Blending Social and Mass Media Audiences Through the Lens of Computer-Mediated Discourse

2018 ◽  
pp. 1022-1046
Author(s):  
Asta Zelenkauskaite
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Automated Analysis ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Audience Analysis ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse

In recent years, mass media content has undergone a blending process with social media. Large amounts of text-based social media content have not only shaped mass media products, but also provided new opportunities to access audience behaviors through these large-scale datasets. Yet, evaluating a plethora of audience contents strikes one as methodologically challenging endeavor. This study illustrates advantages and applications of a mixed-method approach that includes quantitative computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) and automated analysis of content frequency. To evaluate these methodologies, audience comments consisting of Facebook comments and SMS mobile texting to Italian radio-TV station RTL 102.5 were analyzed. Blended media contents through computer-mediated discourse analysis expand horizons for theoretical and methodological audience analysis research in parallel to established audience analysis metrics.

If Pandora had a Blog

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Otilia Pacea
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Genre Analysis ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Political Blogs ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
Digital Landscape

In the context of internet genre migration and proliferation, conventional taxonomies are no longer valid. To classify blogs between thematic and personal blogs is to blissfully ignore the legions of successful content prosumers, from political blogs to travel blogs, from food blogs to MAD (mom and dad) blogs, from fashion blogs to milblogs. With the recent explosion of social media, the digital landscape shifted and today there are more voices online than ever before. For blogs, however, the original purpose for communication has always been twofold: to inform and to emote. Computer-mediated communication may be overpopulated with a myriad of mixed forms and blogs might be dead or simply, difficult to reach with so much overlapping. Yet high-impact blogs still remain and are widely read. This paper explores the language of high-impact blogs, testing a new methodology for genre analysis to solve genre hybridity in the case of computer-mediated discourse.

scholarly journals Word Shortening Strategies: Egyptian vs. Non-Egyptian English Tweets

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Iman Mohamed Mahfouz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Parallel Corpora ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Message Length ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Media Platform

The language of Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) is known to deviate from standard language in many ways dictated by the characteristics of the medium in order to achieve brevity, speed as well as innovation. Together with the intrinsic features of CMC in general, the character limitation imposed by the popular social media platform, Twitter has triggered the use of a number of linguistic devices including shortening strategies in addition to unconventional spelling and grammar. Using two parallel corpora of English tweets written by Egyptians and non-Egyptians on a similar hashtag, the study attempts to compare the shortening strategies used in both datasets. A taxonomy for orthographic and morphological shortening strategies was adapted from Thurlow and Brown (2003) and Denby (2010) with particular focus on message length, punctuation, clipping, abbreviations, contractions, alphanumeric homophones and accent stylization. Given the scarcity of linguistic studies conducted on Egyptian tweets despite the vast amount of data they offer, the study compares the findings about tweets written by Egyptians in English as a foreign language to previous studies. The findings suggest that Egyptians tend to omit punctuation more frequently, whereas non-Egyptians favor abbreviations, contractions and clipped forms. The results also indicate that Twitter may be shifting towards longer messages while at the same time increasingly employing more shortening strategies. The study also reveals that character limitation is not the only factor shaping language use on Twitter since not all linguistic choices are governed by brevity of communication.

Sustainable Green Customers' Engagement through Social Media for Business Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
G. M. Sadman Tanvir ◽  
Mohammed Aktaruzzaman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Customer Engagement ◽  
Business Decision ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Environmental Consideration ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Further Development

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals given by United Nations, many countries are now working to integrate environmental consideration into the business decision-making process to amplify economic growth along with sustainable environmental protection. Hence, organizations have begun to adopt an environmental-friendly business process. However, it can be safe to state that any sustainable success of these 'greening' activities could be impossible without engaging and involving customers in the business process. Many companies started this strategy through different media, including social media. But, Sustainable Green Customer Engagement through social media is still an elusive term for the industry. There are questions around what would work for Sustainable Green Customer Engagement that requires scholarly effort. Hence, the primary aim of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of this fundamental issue and then propose an appropriate implication of SGCE. There is a significant gap in the literature of SGCE, especially in the social media platform. The thematic analysis from this study will assist researchers in understanding the managing process of SGCE towards further development. Moreover, the implication from this study can help the organizations and policymakers to strategize enhancing greening initiatives, which eventually will improve environmental awareness and social wellbeing.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Themes of Refuting Rumors on China's Sina Weibo During the Period of Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Difan Guo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Release Channel ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
News Release ◽  
System Disease ◽  
Study Find ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Government

From the end of 2019 to 2020, there were countless rumors on the Internet related to COVID-19 during the viral epidemic. This study analyzed how government Weibo, the official news release channel of government social media, refuted rumors on China's leading social media platform Sina Weibo during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in China. This study used the LDA topic model to model the Weibo text topic and obtain the topics of the rumors that the government Weibo defied. This study find that the five main topics of rumors presented in the anti-rumor Weibo are highly related to the operation of the social system, disease prevention and treatment, and social security.  

scholarly journals Characterizing Eating Disorder Issues on Sina Weibo

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyun Tang ◽  
Guang Yu ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Xiaoxu Yao
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Young Females ◽  
Disease Condition ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Share Information

Eating disorder (ED) was not learned well in China. To contribute to an understanding of the prevalence of EDs in China and to identify individuals with ED tendencies, we randomly selected one million Sina Weibo (social media platform similar to twitter) users and collected all their postings related to ED keywords. Using thematic analysis and sentiment analysis our study proposes an approach for identifying ED-prone people, the use of which reveals the current situation with regard to EDs in China. The identified ED-prone people were all willing to share information about diet, body shape and slimming while reporting their disease condition. Most of these users were young females, who were active on social media but in a negative frame of mind. With the method proposed in this study, it is possible to identify individuals with an ED and carry out timely intervention via social media at a very low cost.

Ta as an emergent language practice of audience design in CMC

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Sluchinski
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Small Stories

Abstract This study examines the use of ungendered third person Chinese pronoun ta in digital first-and-third person voiced discourses (i.e. small stories). The study asks what implications the script choice ta, as opposed to gendered 他 ta ‘he’ and 她 ta ‘she’, has for audience design and the facilitation of character empathy. The study draws on 131 digital texts from celebrity verified accounts on social media platform Sina Weibo in October 2015. From a Discourse Analytical perspective focused on deixis relative to the notion of empathy in storytelling, the study investigates emergent practices which involve the orthographic manipulation of gender. The study proposes that ta is an interpersonal resource whose deictic properties as a non-standard spelling are exploited as a property of audience design to facilitate an appeal to empathy. This facilitation is advanced by the script choice which offers a wider scope of reference, and thus targets a wider audience.

Microblogging (Weibo) and Environmental Nonprofit Organizations in China

2015 ◽  
pp. 94-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Ma ◽  
Zhibin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Efficient Information ◽  
Practical Implications

Environmental Nonprofit Organizations (ENPOs) in China have been actively employing microblogging (e.g., Sina Weibo) and other social media. This chapter, with a case of Wuhan FON in a nationwide campaign of “I gauge air quality for my motherland,” examines the key strategies and tactics Chinese ENPOs adopted in using social media to enhance their communicative functions and mobilizing capacities in the unique nonprofit environment of China. The case demonstrates that social media utilization can effectively help Chinese ENPOs in policy advocacy, especially through more efficient information dissemination. This chapter also identifies the major challenges faced by Chinese ENPOs in social media use and the corresponding solutions. It concludes with the discussions on the theoretical and practical implications of the case as well as several promising research avenues in this field.

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