Example of a Pro-Trump Rectification Post

Around 80% of the 73 posts attempted to rectify (correct) the 'dumb Republican meme'. A majority of these rectifications posts are from pro-Trump users who sought to rectify the fake-quote on either Trump's, the Republican party, or their own personal behalf. 

Saint Louis University

The present study did three searches between 2016 and 2018 on Facebook posts that shared the 'dumb Republicans meme' that involved Trump and found 73 relevant posts for the sample size. These posts were placed into three groups:

- posts where the actual meme was reposted by users
- posts where there was only a reference to the meme regarding 'dumb Republicans'
- posts where only an allusive reference was made to the meme in a non-explicit way

Additionally, the Facebook users publicly identified as either pro- or contra Trump.

Present Study of Audience Uptake of the Trump Fake-Quote

Kirner-Ludwig, M. (2020). Creation, dissemination and uptake of fake-quotes in lay political discourse on Facebook and Twitter. Journal of Pragmatics, 157, 101-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.07.009

Creation, dissemination and uptake of fake-quotes in lay political discourse on Facebook and Twitter

While a majority of the Pro-Trumpians expressed anger at the 'dumb Republicans' fake-quote being disseminated, the rectifying posts made by Contra-Trumpians was more spread out. Some users would acknowledge that the quote by Trump was indeed false, but would still believe the message behind the quote in that Republicans are dumb. Another group of Contra-Trumpian users would even point out their mistake of believing and posting the fake-quote. A third group of users were unsure on the veracity of the fake-quote but used their uncertainty to open up discussion on the importance of fact-checking content found on Facebook.

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