Critical

Emoji, Language, and Corporate Control

Emoji, Language, and Corporate Control

DW Documentary, 2020, 49:52… Who has power over the emoji? Where are emojis coming from? There is one "High Council" of online communication that is difficult to access and has the power over our emoji selection on the keyboard: The Unicode Consortium. So what does it take to get a new emoji on the phone's keyboard? Why is the LGBTQI rainbow flag emoji in the keyboards, but not the one that stands for transgender people? Where lies the power to make such decisions?

The Problems of Border Security TV

The Problems of Border Security TV

Al Jazeera, 2018, 9:55… For the past few years, Border Security TV has become a regular fixture on airwaves around the globe. It's a subgenre of reality TV where camera crews follow border control officials as they search for illegal goods, interrogate suspicious newcomers, and deport those deemed unwanted. Its popularity, some say, is a clear sign of the times.