Digital Media Analysis

Communication is a conversation, either spoken, written or through digital media, between two or more people. With the introduction of texting in the early 90's, and the wide range of Social Media options out there today, people are able to communicate more quickly and efficiently. In the days of our great/grandparents, communication came in the forms of written letters and face to face conversations. Digital media is digitalised content that can be transmitted over the internet or computer networks, and can include audio, video, graphic and text. Some forms of digital media include Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, which is used by young and old alike. Digital Media has changed rapidly over the years and has had a dramatic affect on the

Firstly, transcript 1 shows the use of capitalisation - "YEAAAAAAH". Capitalisation has been used here in the absence of paralinguistic features, such as volume, pitch and body language. Therefore, by using capitalisation, they are emphasising their enthusiasm to get together again. Secondly, initialism has been used in transcript 2. "LMAO", which stands for "Laughing my ass off", is again used due to the absence of paralinguistic features and to show the feelings of joy and happiness. In addition, Emoticons are also used to express emotions and feelings that you use when speaking to someone face to face, as shown in the happy and sad icons in transcripts 1 and 3. Next, Repeated letters are features of digital media that emphasise the importance of the phrase. For example, in transcripts 1 and 3, "xxxxxx" and "sorrryyyyy" are used to express and emphasise emotion. The letter X represents a kiss, which one might give to someone once they had concluded their conversation with the person they care about. The repeated letters in the word "sorrryyyyy" suggest a long, whining tone and pitch. Repeated letters are again, used to show emphasis on emotion and tone. Finally, Number homophones, for example "m8" and "celebr8" as shown in transcript 2, show rebellion and suggests the person writing is of the younger generation, who thinks it's cool to rebel against the normal use of the English