The seemingly endless presidential campaign has seen a level of aggressive rhetoric rarely encountered in American politics. But do all the vicious name-calling, unsupported accusations and snarky hand-size references actually constitute character assassination?
Not necessarily, said Sergei Samoilenko, a public relations professor in George Mason University’s Department of Communication. Samoilenko has studied character assassination and is preparing a book on the subject.
There’s a difference between character “attacks” and character assassination, he said. That fine line will be on display Saturday, April 22, during the character assassination portion of the Virginia Association of Communication Arts and Sciences two-day conference. The session, which begins at 11 a.m. in Room A of George Mason’s Johnson Center on the Fairfax Campus, is the finale of the conference that begins on Friday.
This conference presents the latest work of communication faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students—especially those based in Virginia. The student papers include:
- Tom Shaw, “Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal and Hypocrisy"
- Victoria Cordova, “The Clintons vs. Gennifer Flowers”
- Michael Richardson, “The Character Attack that Killed Romney’s 2012 Campaign”
Mason faculty members Samoilenko and Jennifer Keohane will examine “Character Assassination in the 2016 Election: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.”
The conference begins with panel discussions from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 22, in Johnson Center rooms A, B, C and D.