Notes on Contributors

Oluseyi Adegbola (PhD, Texas Tech) is an assistant professor of public relations in the College of Communication and Information (CCI) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include how access to public affairs information shapes political engagement and public opinion in emerging and established democracies, as well as public relations and strategic communication within the context of politics and government. His work has been published in journals including Social Media & Society, Public Relations Review, The International Journal of Press/Politics, and the International Journal of Communication among other notable publications.

Vincent August is a professor of social theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the head of the research group "Ecological conflicts" (co-headed by André Brodocz and funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation). He has been a visiting researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), the Weizenbaum Institute of the Networked Society, and the University of Erfurt. He is the co-editor of the Theorieblog, the leading science blog on social and political theory in Germany and receiver of the Pollux research blog of the year award. His research on conflict focuses on conflict dynamics, cleavage constellations, and the ecological transformation of democracies. He has recently published "Understanding democratic conflicts: The failures of agonistic theory" in the European Journal of Political Theory. In addition, he investigates the history of contemporary ideas such as transparency, networks, flexibility, or resilience.

William L. Benoit (PhD, Wayne State University, 1979) is a distinguished professor in the Communication Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published 21 books and a host of journal articles and book chapters in prominent communication outlets. He is widely cited for his Theory of Image Repair and the Theory of Persuasive Attack.

Clifford Bob is a professor and the chair of political science and the Raymond J. Kelley Endowed Chair in International Relations at Duquesne University. He holds a PhD in political science from MIT and a JD in law from New York University. He has written many academic articles and several books, including The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Support that was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005 and won the International Studies Association (ISA) Book of the Year Award. His next book, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics (Cambridge, 2012), won the ISA Book of the Decade Award in 2020. His most recent book is Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power, published in 2019 by Princeton University Press. He has won fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, American Council of Learned Societies, U.S. Institute of Peace, Transatlantic Academy, and Fulbright Global Scholar program.

Kurt Braddock is an assistant professor of public communication and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University. His research focuses on the persuasive strategies employed by extremist groups that serve to recruit and/or radicalize audiences. His work has been published in multiple communication and security journals, including Communication Monographs, New Media and Society, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and others. His first book, Weaponized Words: The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. In addition to his scholarly work, He advises a number of national and international organizations on issues related to communication and extremism, including the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The U.K. Home Office, Public Safety Canada, and the U.N. Counterterrorism Executive Directorate.

Axel Bruns is an Australian Laureate Fellow and professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. His books include Are Filter Bubbles Real? (2019), Gatewatching and News Curation: Journalism, Social Media, and the Public Sphere (2018), and The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (2016).

Iulian Chifu, PhD, is the president of the Conflict Prevention and Early Warning Center, Bucharest, an NGO that is specializing in research on international relations, conflict analysis, and decision-making in crisis. He is a professor at the National Defense University Bucharest and an associate professor at the National University for Political and Administrative Studies. In addition, he serves as an advisor to the president of the Romanian Senate for foreign policy, security, and strategic affairs. He was the Presidential Counsellor for Strategic Affairs and International Security, Romanian Presidency, between 2012-2014 and Presidential Counsellor for Strategic Affairs, Security and Foreign Policy between 2011and 2012 for the Romanian President Traian Basescu. Between 2021 and 2023 he was the State Counsellor for Foreign Affairs, Security and Strategic Affairs of the Romanian prime minister. He acts now as a Counsellor of the president of the Romanian Senate. He has two doctoral degrees: the first in contemporary history and international relations and the other one in intelligence and national security. He is an author and co-author of more than 58 books and hundreds of articles.

Innocent Chiluwa is a professor in English linguistics (discourse analysis) and media/communication studies. He is Humboldt scholar and visiting professor at the Department of English, University of Freiburg. His research interests include discourse analysis, media and conflict studies, social movement studies, critical discourse analysis, online activism, hate studies, disinformation, and deception studies, terrorism, and political violence.

Spencer D. Choate received his MA from San Jose State University in communication studies. He is a professor in communication studies at the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento. He currently teaches at both Cosumnes River College and American River College.

Tariq Choucair is a postdoctoral research associate at QUT's Digital Media Research Centre. He investigates online political conversations using manual and computational methods. His work includes the book Deliberative System and Interconnected Media in Times of Uncertainty (Palgrave, 2023) and papers published by Political Studies, Political Research Exchange, and other journals.

Kristen L. Cole is an associate professor in communication studies at San José State University. She investigates how political, rhetorical, and social forces enable and constrain the capacity for people to navigate their lived experiences as they pursue a more habitable world. Her research has been published in Review of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Health Communication, and Communication, Culture, & Critique.

Josh Compton is professor of speech at Dartmouth College. He has been studying inoculation as a way to confer resistance to influence for more than 20 years. His scholarship appears in Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, and others. He authored the inoculation theory chapter in The Sage Handbook of Persuasion (Sage) and co-authored the inoculation theory chapter in Persuasion and Communication in Sport, Physical Activity, and Exercise (Taylor Francis)-a book that he co-edited and that won the 2022 Distinguished Book Award from the Communication and Social Cognition Division of NCA. He is co-editor of a forthcoming book on inoculation theory. Josh has been an invited expert for the Department of Defense's Strategic Multilayer Assessment program (USA) and NATO's and USSOCOM's Joint Senior Psychological Operations Conference, and he is a member of the Global Experts on Debunking of Misinformation group. He has been named Distinguished Lecturer by Dartmouth College, he won the Outstanding Professor Award from the National Speakers Association, and he has twice won the L. E. Norton Award for Outstanding Scholarship.

W. Timothy Coombs (PhD, Purdue University) is an advisor for the Centre for Crisis and Risk Communications. His primary area of research and consulting is crisis communication. His works include the award-winning book Ongoing Crisis Communication, co-editing The Handbook of Crisis Communication, and co-writing Strategic Sport Communication: Traditional and Transmedia Strategies for a Global Sport Market. His crisis communication research has won multiple awards from professional organizations including the Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize. He is a fellow in the International Communication Association.

Jeroen de Ridder is a full professor of political epistemology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research focuses on issues in social epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of religion.

Michael D. English is the director and assistant teaching professor for the Peace, Conflict, and Security Program at the...