emojis
"We cannot fully understand digital diplomacy without considering the power of emotion," writes Constance Duncombe in the latest Soft Power 30 report.
Four alumni of the State Department's NSLI-Y program use the popular messaging icons to explain a few words in Mandarin.
Using emojis to help shape the nation's image is a playful, but not frivolous approach to foreign policy. Finland is a highly educated country where tech is an important industry. The selection of emojis appears to be a way to highlight Finland's values and Arctic presence, while also demonstrating its tech expertise.
Earlier this month saw the world’s first celebration of all things emoji, Emojicon. The brainchild of Jennifer 8. Lee and designer Yiying Lu, founders of Emojination, and produced by Jeanne Brooks, the convention aimed to promote diversity and representation within emoji. It also brought together designers, enthusiasts, and members of the Unicode consortium.
Finland became the first country in the world to unveil a collection of national emojis in December, 2015. Finland is set to become the first country in the world to have its own country-themed emojis added to the Unicode Standard. [...] are likely to be introduced to the emoji keyboards of smart devices around the world next June.
When the world’s nations sit down to talk nowadays, there is a distinct difference to the way diplomacy is done. Influence is no longer defined only by special relationships and old alliances, but which WhatsApp group you are invited into. The rise of WhatsApp diplomacy is transforming the negotiating chamber.
One socially conscious company is making your emoji keyboard a little less perfect in an effort to tackle food waste. Hungry Harvest, a startup service that delivers "recovered produce" to consumers' doorsteps, has created a series of "ugly" fruit and vegetable emoji meant to get people thinking — and typing — about our preoccupation with aesthetically pleasing food.
Over the last year, emoji developers and public figures have argued that the universal emoji keyboard makes it difficult, if not impossible, for women to represent themselves beyond a bride or princess. Recent successful proposals will rectify that problem by offering dozens of new female characters who do things like work in tech, ride a bike, lift weights and weld.