Emojis in the Context of Digital Mourning. A Twitter-based Analysis of Communication about ‘Angel Babies’

Abstract

Emojis have become an indispensable part of digital communication. There are undoubtedly cultural differences and individual preferences in their use, but the utilization of emojis naturally also depends on the communication situation and the topic. The present article is about emojis that are applied in the context of digital mourning on Twitter for so-called ›angel babies‹ (German: »Sternenkinder«), i.e., children who die (shortly) before, during, or after birth, and sometimes also later. The article analyzes the extent to which emojis are used in mourning processes in addition to verbally expressed grief for a deceased child and what function they have in this context. In particular, it will be analyzed what multimodal communication with emojis looks like, i.e., whether emojis are part of the message or rather have an illustrative char acter. In addition, the question is explored whether there are specific emojis for digital mourning communication and to what extent symbols that can be interpreted in religious terms can also be found (for example angels, praying hands, or candles). The facial signs used will also be examined; for example, the extent to which crying and sad emoticons are used to express grief and empathy. Furthermore, it will be discussed whether the heart as a symbol of love is also as present in grief communication on Twitter – as observed else where in digital communication. The data basis for the analysis is a corpus of around 8,351 German-language tweets containing the sequence of characters »sternenkind« (angel baby).