Buzzfeed conducts first ever ‘emoji interview’ with Australia foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop
Buzzfeed has held what it described as the ‘world’s first political emoji interview’ with Australia foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop on Monday in a broad session which probed everything between Bishop's guilty pleasures to her views on Vladimir Putin.
Julie Bishop, Australia foreign affairs minister
The interview, conducted during an iOS-based iMessage text interview, saw Bishop respond to a broad range of questions with image-based emoji-speak, using no words whatsoever.
The interview was sparked after Bishop commenced her eccentric use of the characters on Twitter in November, coming to a head with an emoji-laden tweet celebrating Australia’s admittance to the Eurovision song contest last week.
The questions started off slow to ease Bishop into the new format.
Quickly however, she was serving up universally understandable symbols to display the country's relationship with the US.
And Indonesia - which did not fare so well due to the country's ongoing dispute over the fate of two Australians set to be executed in the country on drug charges.
She also voiced her displeasure at Russian president Vladimir Putin – in a way.
And finally, when asked if she would like to run for the Australian presidency, Bishop posted an undecided face, perhaps hinting at such an aspiration.
The first-of-its-kind interview comes after Swedish furniture outlet Ikea noticed the growing importance of emoji in modern communications, last week launching an app to help bridge the gap between the sexes.