Uso de los emojis como una nueva forma de comunicación, su evolución y su aplicación en WhatsApp. Estudio de caso: empleo de esta red de mensajería por parte de los estudiantes de octavo ciclo (marzo agosto 2020) de la carrera de Periodismo en la Universidad de Cuenca

Abstract

Emojis over time have become a useful tool when communicating emotions or actions of the moment, generating a feeling of closeness between the participants of the conversation. They are present in multiple communication platforms, social networks, advertising and in a greater number and number of categories in instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, which is an application used worldwide due to its versatility and ease of use that it offers. Currently they are a means of graphic writing with which the user does not need to write texts, since the same emoji can have several meanings according to the context and the people with whom the yellow faces are exchanged. To express the above more precisely, in chapter four the results of the analysis of the messages and emojis used in the WhatsApp group of the students of the 8th cycle of the Journalism career called "Journalism 9" are presented. which makes use of the qualitative methodology of focus groups, divided between men and women. The work is divided into four chapters, in the last one the investigation corresponding to the use and writing in WhatsApp is developed. For this purpose, each of the categories of Message Analysis proposed by Daniel Prieto Castillo is used as a basis, classifying each line of text sent in the group. The analysis of emojis is also presented according to the guidelines proposed by Lorenzo Vilches, thus determining under what circumstances and intention students make use of emojis, an exercise that allows answering the four research questions posed: • How has the use of emojis influenced the way we communicate today? • Under what communication circumstances is the use of emojis allowed? • Could this new form of communication replace traditional writing? • To what extent and under what circumstances do students in the eighth cycle of Journalism make use of emojis in the WhatsApp application? To comply with what was raised, the qualitative research method was used. Using techniques such as bibliographic review, which facilitated meeting the general objective that is to analyze the use of emojis as a new form of communication, and allowed us to know their evolution through history. The interview was also used with focus groups and a teacher on the subject. For the specific objectives, a bibliographic review was carried out in addition to an analysis of the speeches and emojis present in the WhatsApp group