Emoticons as a new means of communication in Italy and Germany

Scientific Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: 1,0, University of Bologna (Discipline della Comunicazione), course: Semiotica dei nuovi media, language: English, abstract: The main objective of this term paper is to analyse the semiotic function of the emoticons and the way people use them to express their emotions. The special focus will be on the comparison between Germany and Italy. Are the cultural differences between these two countries noticeable even when you look at their use of smileys? How do Italians and Germans handle these semiotic devices? These are some of the questions that shall be analysed in the following.