CARP 2017 Conference

The 2017 Conference on Character Assassination in Theory and Practice took place at George Mason University's Arlington campus from March 3-5, 2017. This conference welcomed numerous U.S. and international researchers and academics studying different aspects of character assassination. The conference was organized and hosted by George Mason University’s Department of Communication and the department’s Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP) Research Lab. The three-day CARP 2017 conference also featured critical input from practitioners in crisis management, journalism, and public relations.

• Click here to read the conference report;
• This press release summarizes the conference proceedings;
• View photos from the conference here;
• CARP Youtube Page contains the video recordings of presentations;
• An archived schedule is stored here;
• To learn more about the presenters, click here;
• Also, click here to read an article published by Mason's College of Humanties and Social Sciences (CHSS) regarding the conference: 

Main Points:

§  The contemporary media environment is conducive to incivility in political communication;

§  Character-centered competition continues to prevail in political discourse and legitimize the use of character assassination;

§  Impression management skills of political actors remain crucial under conditions of public distrust in institutions;

§  Protracted antagonism between President Donald Trump and the press is likely to exacerbate deepening distrust in both political institutions and the media;

§  Pre-emptive inoculation and image prepare strategies are recommended as viable counter-strategies against character assassination.