Didi Sukyadi

A Semiotic Analysis of Cyber Emoticons: a Case Study of Kaskus Emoticons in the Lounge Forum at Kaskus-the Largest Indonesian Community Didi Sukyadi

In the era of information technology, people all over the world can easily get connected. Communication tools such as SMS, email, facebook, twitter and Kaskus are available around us. When communicating through social media,nonverbal signs like emoticons are commonly used. Kaskus emoticons have been used widely in cyber, whether in Kaskus forum or blogs or in other Instant Messengers (IMs). This book is aimed at analyzing the significance of Kaskus emoticons in the Lounge forum. The data analyzed were 28 Kaskus emoticons taken from five threads selected from the forum. The study used qualitative descriptive approach framed in semiotic analysis, particularly Roland Barthes? orders of signification. The findings reveal that the significance of those Kaskus emoticons emanates from the emoticon characteristics such as names, colors and emotions which function as a way to communicate in the online forum. Kaskus emoticons serve as a means of (visual) communication among users to emphasize the statement in online communication and to portray mood of the users. This book will be quite useful for those working as beginners in semiotics or communication.