There are a lot of phenomena in the social media, and it might be hard to keep up with the vocabulary.

• Bot account. A bot is an agent that communicates on social media, for example on Twitter. Bot accounts are often automatic accounts that do not have a real user behind them. Bot accounts are used to influence attitudes or thoughts through social media and, for example, to reinforce a particular political message. They can also distribute spam or malware.
• Creative Commons (CC). A public copyright licence that gives you the ability to use and share otherwise copyrighted material such as photos for free. Creative Commons licensed photos can have restrictions on whether an image could be used commercially, whether it can be modified, and what kind of attribution is required.
• Crowdfunding. In crowdfunding a company or a person can fund their project or product by seeking small investments from individuals, most often done through the internet at dedicated crowdfunding websites.
• Crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing means that problem-solving is handed over to an undefined group of people, usually through an open invite published on the internet. Crowdsourcing can be utilised by companies but also for example by editorial staff.
• Cyber security and cyber warfare. Cyberwarfare is the politically motivated use of technology to attack a nation or a nation’s computer and information systems, causing harm comparable to actual warfare. With cyber security, nations actively try to protect themselves from cyber-attacks.
• Embedded media. The content of digital media, like a YouTube video displayed within another piece of content, outside its native setting.
• Emojis. Emojis are Unicode-standard symbols, which can portray expressions, feelings or even images expressing, for example, leisure time, country flags and different characters. The most used ones are the smile and the thumbs up emojis and new symbols are constantly being produced by users.
• Fake news site. A Fake news site publishes incorrect political content designed to provoke and mislead readers. A fake news site usually resembles well-known and established media, making it even harder for readers to recognise untrustworthy sources. Fake news tends to go viral on Facebook, where users often share content without clicking on or checking the source.
• Graphics Interchange Format file (GIF). A file format that supports both static and animated images. Gifs allow the presentation of short “video clips” in a condensed image format.
• Hashtag (#). A content identifier used in social media services such as Twitter and Instagram. By marking a central word with a hashtag, it is possible to locate messages as a part of the online discussion on that topic. Examples of popular hashtags include #metoo and #climatechange. The hashtag is an effective method of communication, promotion and advocacy because it joins the tweet or an Instagram or Facebook post to related conversations. It serves to increase follow up, classification and to locate those who share common interests and concerns. The hashtag is also an effective tool in shining the spotlight on a particular issue, be it political, economic, social or sport-related with the aim of mobilising the public towards the issue at hand.
• Meme. Popular and quickly spreading content on the internet. A meme can be a funny image, video or hashtag. The original meaning of the word meme is a cultural and communicational copy: an idea, style or way of use that spreads in culture from one person to another. Memes are used as tools for influencing, for example in political opinions.
• Onion network. In an onion network, special encryption is used to anonymise messages so that they cannot be traced to their senders. The anonymity can be broken but it is time- and resource-consuming, so the onion network is used by those who use the internet for illegal activities or who dislike the idea of constant surveillance in principle. Onion routers are easy to use even through a special application on a phone.
• Podcast. A podcast is a digitally shared voice-series with episodes that can either be downloaded or streamed directly from the source. Podcasts, like blogs, usually have a common theme and can be produced as a monologue or have several voice actors. In 2019, there are several podcasts produced by large media companies but even more produced by private individuals. The benefits of a podcast in comparison to radio is that it does not need to be listened to live, so the audience can choose when they listen to the episodes.
• Retweet. A tweet that is re-shared to the followers of another user’s Twitter account. It is part of Twitter etiquette to give credit to others and not just copy someone else’s ideas. The retweet does this since it appears in your timeline with the author’s name and avatar allowing your followers to easily retweet or favourite the original Tweet.
• Spam. Unnecessary and repetitive social media content that clogs up the feeds of social media users.
• Tag or “@”. A keyword added to a social media post with the original purpose of categorising related content. A tag can also refer to the act of tagging someone in a post, which creates a link to their social media profile and associates them with the content.
• Troll. Traditionally, an internet troll is a person whose main purpose is to provoke, irritate and bully others online. Recently, the term has taken on a new meaning, as groups of ‘trolls’ are organised and paid for publishing anonymous, political content, which is used for the purposes of propaganda and information warfare.
• Tweet. A microblog post in Twitter. It consists of a maximum of 140 characters and may include text, photos, links, hashtags and tags.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator). URL locates a page or other resource on the World Wide Web.
• User-generated content (UGC). Content that has been created and published online by the users of a social or collaboration platform, typically for non-commercial purposes and it is one of the defining characteristics of social media.
• Viral phenomenon. An internet phenomenon in which some content spreads at great speed and sometimes achieves great popularity. The word viral originally refers to viruses: something that spreads virally, like a virus.