Investigating the Socio-Psychological Motives Behind the Linguistic Features of Sarcasm Against Political Decisions Amongst Facebook Users at Tiaret

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ability of sarcastic language in some Facebook posts against political decisions/ decision-makers in conveying of messages and changing the political state of affairs in Algeria. To unravel the linguistic use and/or choice in our respondents‟ sarcastic Facebook posts, mixed methods research was employed that‟s a quantitative and qualitative approaches (i.e., via using a questionnaire, as a tool for data collection, distributed upon 150 respondents in Tiaret Speech Community (TSC), and Content Analysis, as a tool for data analysis, to deconstruct 40 Facebook sarcastic posts). The findings show that Facebookers in TSC prefer using sarcastic posts on unexpected and/or unreasonable political decisions in an attempt to reflect their sad real-life situation in funny ways for the sake of pushing decision makers to find immediate solutions. Last but not least, this study opens the door for further research like the exploitation of metaphorical expressions in social networking sites to change public opinion towards politicians and political decisions in Algeria.