The Role of Sarcastic Media in the Formation of the Palestinian Public Opinion; Case Study of “Mesh.hek” Facebook Page

The formation of the Palestinian public opinion is a unique process in which wide number of players and factors including the Israeli are taking part in. Historically, media has been one of the most important factors in the formation of the Palestinian opinion. Palestinians have been using media since the beginning of the Israeli – Arab conflict to gain the international support and unite the Palestinians over the idea of freedom and independence. The recent growth of Internet and technologies turned Social Network Sites (SNS) to be one of the most important factors that can affect and influence the Palestinian public opinion. Although Sarcastic media has been used since the beginning of the conflict through the traditional media channels, it took more importance and influence over Palestinians as social network sites become widely used in Palestine. In 2006, The Palestinian internal conflict took place and opened a wide door for activists and institutions to use sarcasm through social networks as a weapon that can influenced people and deliver political messages. The present study focuses on the role of sarcastic media in the formation of the public opinion towards the political issues in Palestine taking a Facebook page called “Mesh.hek” as a case study. Mesh.hek has been selected for the study due to its wide follow among Palestinians as a sarcastic page, the unknown administration of the page and the contents that it shares. Few Palestinians wrote about the formation of the Palestinian Public Opinion and the role of media in this process but no one conducted any research or article related with the sarcastic media in Palestine and its influence over the Palestinian public opinion. One the other hand, the lack of researches in this field gives the study additional importance, another fact that makes it valuable is using the English language in conducting it. The study is based on tow testing theories; Uses and Gratification Theory and the Agenda Setting Theory. Furthermore, the quantitative methodology has been carried out in this study as the researcher created an online questionnaire that includes 49 questions and filled out by 500 participants from the followers of the Facebook page of “Mesh.hek”. The main findings and results of this study can be summarized in several points which include the high level of influence that sarcastic media has over the Palestinian public opinion, the low level of freedom of express in Palestine and the political agenda that Mesh.hek works accord which mainly depends on supporting the Palestinian resistance and attacks the corruption in the economic in a way that highly influences the Palestinian public opinion. Keywords: Sarcastic Media, Social Media, Mesh.hek, Uses and Gratification theory, Agenda Setting Theory, Palestinian – Israeli Conflict, Palestinian Internal Conflict, Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Liberation Organization.