Automatic Recognition of Satire in Web Content

Irony and satire can be useful weapons in any communicator’s rhetorical arsenal. They provide a nuanced means for expressing critical sentiments and for openly exploring divisive subjects. However, the very subtlety that grants these devices their utility also lends to their greatest drawback: implied meanings are often lost on their intended audience. In textual communication this difficulty is magnified by the absence of any non-verbal queues that might imply a non-literal interpretation.