Emoji are a significant development in contemporary communication, deserving serious attention for their impact on both language use and society. Based on original mixed-methods research, this timely book focuses on emoji literacy across the healthcare landscape, with emphasis on how they are employed in healthcare worker and patient education. It situates emoji within a semioliteracy theoretical framework and presents the findings of a mixed methods study of emoji use as a literacy tool in a health professions course. Drawing on real-life case studies, it explores emoji literacy across a range of public health education contexts including doctor-to-industry, patient-to doctor, doctor-to-patient, and healthcare providers/CDC to global audience. It also advances a broader argument about the role of emoji in a paradigm shift of communication in education. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

‘This book makes what to many may be a startling argument: that emoji can play a positive instrumental role in teaching and learning. Turn to page 1 to find out just how and why Petcoff, Palaganas, and Danesi make a compelling case for taking emoji seriously - and then some.’

Andrea A. Lunsford - Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Emerita, Stanford University

‘I was fascinated by the arguments behind the rise of the diffusion of emoji into everyday communication. This book outlines the theoretical background to this phenomenon, and outlines recent research on how the domains of healthcare and education are slowly catching up, although not without considerable resistance in some cases. It is an area of applied multimodal communication that is destined to grow even more rapidly, which makes this book critical reading.’

Geoff Beattie - Edge Hill University and Visiting Scholar, Wolfson College, University of Oxford

‘For all generations, this book is a must read in order to connect with a language all its own. As a baby boomer myself, I learned so much that is translatable toteaching and learning, as well as establishing connections with others.’

Kenneth R. White - Dean and Professor, School of Nursing, Massachusetts General Hospital