Technically white: Emoji skin-tone modifiers as American technoculture

Authors

  • Miriam E. Sweeney University of Alabama
  • Kelsea Whaley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i7.10060

Keywords:

emoji, technoculture, race, whiteness, critical technocultural discourse analysis

Abstract

The inclusion of skin-tone modifiers into the standard emoji set marked a shift from the default white racialization of emoji towards explicit attempts to expand racial representation in the human emoji characters. This study explores the racial logics of emoji as culturally-situated artifacts that rely on linked understandings of race and technology. We conduct an interface analysis of emoji skin-tone modifiers, coupled with user discourse analysis, to explore the design and user interpretations of skin-tone modifiers. Our findings suggest that though the skin-tone modifiers were introduced as an intervention into the lack of racial representation in emoji, they continue to technically center whiteness in the emoji set as an extension of American technoculture.

Author Biographies

Miriam E. Sweeney, University of Alabama

Miriam E. Sweeney is an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. She holds a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Kelsea Whaley

Kelsea Whaley is a law librarian at Balch & Bingham in Birmingham, AL. She holds a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies.

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Published

2019-06-30

How to Cite

Sweeney, M. E., & Whaley, K. (2019). Technically white: Emoji skin-tone modifiers as American technoculture. First Monday, 24(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i7.10060