Sara Polak (Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society) is an assistant professor in American Studies, focusing on US presidents and their media. She wrote This is Roosevelt’s World — FDR as a Cultural Icon in American Memory and co-edited Embodying Contagion: The Viropolitics of Horror and Desire in Contemporary Discourse. Daniel Trottier (Erasmus University Rotterdam) is an associate professor of Global Digital Media. His current research considers the use of digital media for the purposes of scrutiny, denunciation and shaming. His books include Social Media as Surveillance, Identity Problems in the Facebook Era and Introducing Vigilant Audiences.

• 1. Introduction- Online Vitriol, nothing new? 2. Section 1: A Cultural History of Online Vitriol, 3. Section 2: How Media Shape Practices, 4. Section 3: Emotions Coursing Through the Internet: Affect, Shock value, Polarization, 5. Section 4: Ethics, Legal approaches, and Public Engagements, 6. Section 5: How to Respond to Online Vitriol? 7. Conclusion: How Do We Understand Online Vitriol?

"This collection serves as an excellent resource for understanding the communicative phenomenon of online vitriol, and teachers could assign chapters out of order. Each article explores a different side of the concepts to offer a compelling theorization of combative and violent online discursive engagement."- Myles W. Mason, International Journal of Communication 15 (2021)