Sinn Féin And Sinister Emojis

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Unhappy and happy emojis; Stephen Collins, Irish Times’ former political editor and columnist

This morning.

Put a happy face on….

If Sinn Féin has the energy and the resources to dominate social media and disseminate its message there is nothing wrong with that.

Where it begins to get sinister is the way in which the party’s keyboard warriors seek to intimidate people propounding different views.

For instance the [Dublin City University] study found a marked difference between the emoji icons used to react to posts by the parties.

“Haha”, or “Angry” constituted 94 per cent of emoji reactions for posts by Fine Gael, and 90 per cent for Fianna Fáil, while they only accounted for 7 per cent of these reactions to posts by Sinn Féin.

….The study found that 91 per cent of the emoji reactions to Sinn Féin posts were “Love”.

What it suggests is that the Sinn Féin keyboard army was not just actively pushing its own message but attacking the messages being put out by its political opponents.

…. Whether it is down to poor organisation or fear of intimidation by the “Shinnerbots”, the two parties now negotiating a programme for government appear oblivious to the daily assault they suffer on social media, which is merely a harbinger of what awaits them when the next election comes around.

:(

Also: 😂

Stephen Collins: Big two must take fight to SF on social media (Irish Times)

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24 thoughts on “Sinn Féin And Sinister Emojis

  1. Joe

    One would imagine that the Irish Times (then again judging by their cartoon journalism perhaps not) would be a little bit more creative in its ongoing anti Sinn Fein hate campaign and have come up with something a little more novel than abusing the word “sinister”. The Irish Times wore out the use of the word “sinister” during their propaganda campaign against the Anti Irish Water protests.
    Typical of the garbage “journalism” by the more and more irrelevant Irish Times comic book :)

    1. scottser

      without getting too far into the whataboutery, you don’t have to look too far to see other groups and vested interests doing the same thing. Broadsheet is about as social media as i get, but even on here around election time it’s pretty obvious that YFG were earning their pocket money dissing anything even remotely critical of their past performance and rubbishing FF for breaking the country at every hand’s turn.
      the internet is a bit of a poopa-doopa-pooty-poopkins in that regard.

      1. Cian

        I don’t know why you are picking on YFG.

        Coming up to the election there was a spate of new posters that had very strong opinions for/against every party.

  2. ummmmmmm

    ” “Haha”, or “Angry” constituted 94 per cent of emoji reactions for posts by Fine Gael, and 90 per cent for Fianna Fáil, while they only accounted for 7 per cent of these reactions to posts by Sinn Féin.”

    The correlation here stated does not suggest “that the Sinn Féin keyboard army was not just actively pushing its own message but attacking the messages being put out by its political opponents “.

    He’s deliberately taken objective data and then stated a single personal analysis that didn’t exist in the context of the study in order to make it look like the data supports his pre-existing conclusion. That’s literal misrepresentation of the data he cites.

    Some Fox News level silly-pants going on there.

    1. class wario

      Collins is so routinely disingenuous about everything he opposes politically, not sure why he would be regarded any better than say an Ian O’Doherty or a George hook or what have you

  3. Janet, I ate my avatar

    maybe just maybe their posts are met with the dérision and disbelief that they merit…maybe that’s the genuine public opinion, you know the one they won’t listen to or accept

    1. realPolithicks

      That’s it in a nutshell Janet, these establishment figures simply refuse to accept that many people in Ireland have figured the chancers out and throw out this kind of “journalism” in a desperate effort to re-circle the wagons.

  4. V'ness

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )(¬_¬ )ಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠಠಿ_ಠ╰(艹皿艹 )╰(艹皿艹 )╰(艹皿艹 )╰(艹皿艹 )╰(‵□′)╯╰(‵□′)╯┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛┗|`O′|┛(⊙o⊙)(⊙o⊙)(⊙o⊙)(⊙o⊙)ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ(⊙﹏⊙)(⊙﹏⊙)( ̄_ ̄|||)( ̄_ ̄|||)←_←←_←←_←(◎﹏◎)(◎﹏◎)(◎﹏◎)

    (✿◡‿◡)

    (☆-v-)

  5. Cian

    ” “Haha”, or “Angry” constituted 94 per cent of emoji reactions for posts by Fine Gael, and 90 per cent for Fianna Fáil, while they only accounted for 7 per cent of these reactions to posts by Sinn Féin.”

    It could be the differences in the way FF, FG, and SF promote themselves.

    I noticed in the GE TV debates that the Mary Lou usually personalised all of her points whereas Leo and Michael would be more high-level and factual. For example if talking about homelessness Mary Lou would talk about an individual (A constituent of mine, who, with her two children, was ….). The other two talked about “thousands of homes” being built.

    If their Facebook is run in the same way it would be understandable that the SF ‘human’ stories get ❤s while the FF/FG ’emotionless’ stories get >-( or :’-).

    1. GiggidyGoo

      “Leo and Michael would be more high-level and factual.”
      That’s pushing it.

  6. jamesjoist

    I think it reflects the number of committed activists who support Sinn Fein . The days of predominately working class people actively supporting Fianna Fail , postering , leafleting etc , are long gone . Were they ever a resource of Fine Gael ? Seems to me this is sour grapes because of the dependence of the “establishment” , for want of a better word , parties on spindocters and contractors . Hang around for twenty years , I’m sure Sinn Fein will be in the same boat.

  7. MaryLou's ArmaLite

    ArmaLite in one hand, ballot papers in the other, emojis at the fingertips

    Remember a vote for SF/IRA is a vote for murder.

    1. Johnny

      -c’mon lads !
      He was Ger’s booboo at Tribune and carried water for the PD’s,he still bores the botty of anyone unfortunate get stuck with him socially about the tumpty-tumpting PD’s and their glorious days in the 70’s,with that warrior Geraldine Kennedy-exactly who !
      He and that other tooty-pantaloons who smeared journalists,Senator something are still polluting the airwaves,FPS they must all be in their late 60’s go enjoy your grandkids your out touch and irrelevant.

  8. RuilleBuille

    Colm Keena had already written a piece in the IT about this study. Clearly he was a bit too objective for the rabidly right Collins.In my area FF hired a company to erect their posters and the Labour Party paid leafleteers from a direct provision centre.

    “Their study found that Sinn Féin posts on Facebook over the course of the campaign (January 14th to February 8th) had 567,020 “interactions” or responses, compared to 49,358 for Fianna Fáil and 55,152 for Fine Gael.”

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-massively-dominant-on-facebook-during-general-election-1.4261458

  9. A Person

    I agree with Collins. There are 3 or 4 people (always) on here who comment constantly on F/FG (yawn). People who agrees with them or else calls them out and asks questions they: (a) they get accused of being either a child, from FG or have nothing to add; (b) they never answer questions when challenged. Which is why I rarely look at BS anymore – the bias of the comments.

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