The Strange Science Of Translating Sarcasm Online

This article discusses the challenges with successfully expressing and interpreting sarcasm online (eg, in emails, tweets, etc), since sarcasm is typically best communicated in person with a smile, a wink, or a nudge.  In the digital space, sarcasm is much more difficult to relay effectively, and the probability of a recipient misinterpreting the humor is much greater (vs. in person).  To begin conducting some research on how sarcasm is expressed online, some analysts looked at Twitter feeds that discussed the 2012 presidential election.  The goal of the research was to see if they could build a computer program that could accurately detect sarcasm in the tweets.  The researchers built a “natural-language processing program” that categorized tweets as positive or negative, as well as directed to label tweets as sarcastic/not sarcastic.  While the article does not explicitly discuss the outcome of this study, it is interesting to note that research is being done to examine how sarcasm can be detected online.

Another important item are some new symbols that people have developed to communicate sarcasm, since emoticons and other forms of punctuation are not always effective.  Some people have begun using “(*S)” in their Twitter feeds.  Doug Sak, an accountant in Washington Township, Mich., has developed the "SarcMark," an upside-down lowercase E with a dot in the center.  “He says he is approaching phone carriers to try to get them to include the symbol in their fonts.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203335504578088763796519732.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalTechnology_LEFTTop