Protest in the Digital Era: A Critical Analysis of Facebook Posts of the Fourth Circle Protests in Jordan

Abstract

This study critically investigates the discourse of Facebook posts on Jordan’s Fourth Circle protests. The Facebook posts are considered to be protest discourse, with ideological imprints of positive “we” in-group representations and negative “they” out-group descriptions. Utilizing a critical-discourse analysis method, this study reveals that Facebook posts were efficiently used to define the ethnonational identity of the participants and to describe their goals and activities, as well as to provide continual updates on the protests. The activists used linguistic strategies (e.g., rural terms, pronouns, and humorous posts). The activists purposefully used the indigenous dialect (i.e., the rural Jordanian East-Bank dialect) to express solidarity and address indigenous ethnic aspirations. Consequently, the success of the Fourth Circle protests can be summarized in three great achievements, which are: (1) Prime Minister Hani Mulki’s resignation; (2) cancellation of the income-tax law; and (3) solutions that reduced the cost of living to a more acceptable rate.