Argument Analysis

1. “THE EMOJI’S
STRANGE
POWER”
BY KATY STEINMETZ
TIME MAGAZINE JULY 17, 2104
SAMPLE MEDIUM PROJECT

2. CLAIM
Using Emojis to express
emotion and provide
context for ideas allows
for enhanced digital
communication that
enhances relationships.
Expressing ideas solely
through Emojis is
changing our culture and
portraying a new reality
for communication

3. STEP 3:
COMMUNICATION
Who is the user/audience?
• Everyone
How does communication happen?
• Images help translate emotional cues and tone for digital
communication
What else is shared?
• Cultural values
What is unique to this medium?
• Icon for objects/images for emotions/symbols
How is sight and sound used in your medium?
• Emoji s express an array of ideas, emotions and concepts

4. REASONS AND EVIDENCE
Express emotion and provide context:
“In 1982, the computer-science staff at Carnegie Mellon had taken to bantering on online
discussion boards, but jokes often failed to translate. To prevent the long tirades that
resulted from the misunderstandings, research professor Scott Fahlman suggested that
sarcastic messages be labeled with a smiley sign like this :-) . It worked, and soon after
came the displeased :-( , the winky ;-) and the embarrassed XD.”

5. REASONS AND EVIDENCE
Enhanced digital communication that enhances relationships:
Keltner found that the richer the array of emotions expressed, the
happier and healthier users tended to be.

6. REASONS AND EVIDENCE
Expressing ideas solely through Emojis is changing our
culture and portraying a new reality for communication:

7. TRUTH
Human desire for emotional expression
Dachner Keltner found that “the richer the array of emotions
expressed, the happier and healthier users tended to be.”
Emoji means big business
• Noun project
• Emojli, British Company- “emoji-only social network”
• Fred Benenson – author of emoji only Moby Dick

8. LIMITATIONS
• People use image when the emotion it expresses is clear
• Dacher Keltner and Matt Jones developed a set of stickers
based on Chalres Darwin’s descriptions of human emotions
• “Context can complicate even the simplest smiley face”
• “No standard catalog of emoji”
• 1,500 Emoji identified by Unicode vs. 250,000 words in
English
• Standard emoji sets are not ethnically diverse

9. METAPHOR
(I CREATED THIS SINCE IT IS NOT
IN THE ARTICLE)
Emojis are a cat’s tail.
They let you know the
emotion of the sender.
Like a cat’s tail, they
reflect when someone is
happy, scared, confused,
or angry. However, like
the cat’s tail, sometimes
they are a little hard to
read.