PART I: THE THEORY OF Character Assassination AND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT 1. Character Assassination. Theoretical Framework (Martijn Icks, U of Amsterdam, Eric Shiraev, George Mason U, Jennifer Keohane, U of Baltimore, & Sergei A. Samoilenko, George Mason U) 2. Inoculation Theory against/as Character Assassination (Josh Compton, Dartmouth College, US) 3. The Traumatic Psychological Impact of Character Attacks on Targets (Eric Shiraev, George Mason University & Olga Makhovskaya, The Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia) 4. Character Assassination as a Structurational Phenomenon (Sergei A. Samoilenko, George Mason U) 5.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Character Assassination (Eric Shiraev, George Mason U) PART II: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DYNAMICS 6. Character Attacks on Dutch Revolutionary Adam Gerard Mappa (1754-1828) (Edwina Hagen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 7. Character Assassination in the Soviet Union and Russia (Ekaterina Egorova & Elizaveta Egorova, Political Profiler , US) 8. Character Assassination of Activists in Egypt: ElBaradei as a Target (Alamira Samah Saleh, Cairo U, Egypt) 9: Character Assassination and the Contemporary Anti-corruption Campaign in the Chinese Military (Zi Yang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 10. Character Attacks by Dutch Populist Radical Right Leader Geert Wilders (Stijn van Kessel, Queen Mary U of London, UK) 11. Ad Hominem Attacks in Greek Politics: The Case of the 2015 Referendum (Athanassios N. Samaras, U of Piraeus, Greece, Kyriakos Kolovos, Open U, Cyprus, & Niki Papagianni, U of Piraeus, Greece) 12. The Role of Propaganda in the Character Assassination of World Leaders in International Affairs (Greg Simons, Uppsala U, Sweden) PART III: INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE TARGETS 13.

Agrippina, Theodora and Fredegund as Evil Empresses in the Historiographic Tradition (Martijn Icks, U of Amsterdam) 14. The Character Assassination of Marie-Antoinette: Defamation in the Age of the French Revolution (Simon Burrows, Western Sydney U, Australia) 15. Argumentum ad Carricare as a Mode of Character Attack: Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live (Christopher J. Gilbert, Assumption College, US) 16. Corporate Character Assassination and Crisis Communication (Timothy Coombs & Sherry Holladay, Texas A&M U, US) 17. Country Reputation Assassination during the Greek Memorandum Re-Negotiations (Neofytos Aspriadis, U of Piraeus, Emmanοuil Takas, Panteion U, Greece, & Athanassios N. Samaras, U of Piraeus) PART IV: STRATEGIES OF ATTACK AND DEFENCE 18. The Fight for Public Opinion and Memoria in the Early Roman Principate (Florian Krüpe, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany) 19.

The Rhetorical and Ethical Implications of Character Assassination in the Age of McCarthy (Jennifer Keohane, U of Baltimore) 20. Character Assassination and the Nixon White House (Maureen Minielli, City U of New York, US) 21. Character Assassination and Persuasive Attack on CBS''s Face the Nation (William L. Benoit, University of Alabama at Birmingham, US) 22. Reductio ad Hitlerum as a New Frame for Political and Geopolitical Conflicts (Marlene Laruelle, The George Washington U, US) 23. Show Trials in Communist Countries: Psychology of the Ultimate Cases of Character Assassination (Martina Klicperová-Baker, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) PART V: THE CULTURES OF EMERGENT MEDIA 24. Character Assassination in Reformation Propaganda (Scott Dixon, Queen''s U, Belfast, Northern Ireland & Anita Traninger, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 25. Late Night TV Humor and the Culture of Ridicule (S.

Robert Lichter, George Mason U & Stephen Farnsworth, U of Mary Washington, US) 26. Character Assassins and Moral Entrepreneurs: Social Media and the Regulation of Morality (Chris Ingraham, North Carolina State U, US & Joshua Reeves, Oregon State U, US) 27. Psychological Traits of Character Assassins: Studies in Cyber-Aggression (Olga Bogolyubova, University of Malta) 28. Character Assassination as Scapegoating: The Dentist Who Killed Cecil the Lion (Casey Schmitt, Gonzaga U, US) 29. Character Assassination by Memes: Mosquitos versus Elephants (Jens Seiffert-Brockmann, U of Vienna, Austria) Conclusions and Future Research (Sergei A. Samoilenko, George Mason U, Jennifer Keohane, U of Baltimore, Martijn Icks, U of Amsterdam, Eric Shiraev, George Mason U) Index.