Emoji as Nonverbal Communication among Lecturer-Student Communication in Whatsapp Social Media Academic Group

Abstract

The increasing use of emoji in digital communication should benefit people who actually utilize them, especially when it comes to maintaining efficient communication between lecturers and students. Several studies on the use of WhatsApp emoji have been conducted, but little is known about the use of emoji by lecturers and students in their communication through WhatsApp conversation group. Using the Media Richness Theory proposed by Daft et al. (1987), this study aimed to explore the use of emoji between three lecturers and five students of the Master of Language in Digital Communication and Culture (MLCDC) program at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). By performing Thematic Analysis, the findings of the study revealed that the majority of participants favored using emoji over words since it helped to communicate and deepen feelings in the WhatsApp social media academic group. Furthermore, participants perceived emoji as nonverbal communication to replace words or sentences because it was easier, faster (saving time), and minimized ambiguity while talking with lecturers/students in WhatsApp social media academic groups. However, there are some drawbacks to emoji, such as the fact that it may have varied meanings depending on who sends the message and may not be appropriate for the WhatsApp social media academic group.