Jennifer Forestal
Biographic Data
| ID | 1132893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer Forestal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer |
| FAMILY NAME | Forestal |
| SIGNATURE | FORESTAL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Loyola University Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1153-0552 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Governing the Global Square
Judging the Believability of Social Media Misinformation
Does the source and distinctiveness of misinformation in social media posts affect its believability? Across two studies, we examine this question utilizing vignette experimental survey designs that manipulated the source, accuracy of information, and whether the information was familiar or distinctive (unfamiliar). Four different topics with different political or moral positions were used to assess how effects varied across topics. True posts w…
How Should We Study Multiple Platforms? Lessons from Deliberative Systems Theory
Thinking democracy in a digital age
Social Media, Social Control, and the Politics of Public Shaming
While there is disagreement over the value of public shaming, scholars largely agree that social media introduce pathologies. But while scholars rightly identify the effects of online public shaming (OPS), they misidentify the cause. Rather than solely a problem of scale, OPS's effects are also shaped by the network structure within which they take place. In this article, I argue that the social conditions necessary for productive public shaming …
This Forum Is Not A Democracy”
Incels (short for “involuntarily celibate”) have recently gained notoriety for their aggressive, often violent, misogyny, yet incels were not always an antidemocratic social group. They thus pose a challenge for thinking about democracy and identity in (anonymous) digital environments: how can we create spaces for marginalized social groups while ensuring the resulting identities remain democratic? While many scholars point to technological affor…
Outside the Bubble
In Outside the Bubble: Social Media and Political Participation in Western Democracies, Cristian Vaccari and Augusto Valeriani provide a welcome intervention into contemporary discussions of social media’s political effects. Drawing from an impressive data set collected in nine different countries over three years—and covering over one-third of total social media users living in democracies worldwide—the authors make a convincing case that social…
Of Humans, Machines, and Extremism
The events surrounding the 2020 U.S. election and the January 6 insurrection have challenged scholarly understanding of concepts like collective action, radicalization, and mobilization. In this article, we argue that online far-right radicalization is better understood as a form of distributed cognition, in which the groups' online environment incentivizes certain patterns of behavior over others. Namely, these platforms organize their users in …
Beyond Gatekeeping
While there is disagreement as to the severity of the digital disinformation problem, scholars and practitioners have largely coalesced around the idea that a new system of safeguards is needed to prevent its spread. By minimizing the role of citizens in managing their own communities, however, I argue that these gatekeeping approaches are undemocratic. To develop a more democratic alternative, I draw from the work of Harold D. Lasswell and John …
Constructing Digital Democracies
Deliberative democracy requires both equality and difference, with structures that organize a cohesive public while still accommodating the unique perspectives of each participant. While institutions like laws and norms can help to provide this balance, the built environment also plays a role supporting democratic politics—both on- and off-line. In this article, I use the work of Hannah Arendt to articulate two characteristics the built environme…
Wives of Western Philosophy
The masked demos
Gender and the “Great Man”
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Architecture of Political Spaces
The problem of trolls exemplifies the challenges of building democratic communities in the digital environment of social media. Distinguishing trolls from activists can be difficult; democratic theorists have yet to adequately address how to prevent the former while remaining open to the latter. In this article, I outline a theory of democratic politics that takes space as a central element in shaping democratic interactions. Using the work of Jo…
Beyond Gatekeeping
While there is disagreement as to the severity of the digital disinformation problem, scholars and practitioners have largely coalesced around the idea that a new system of safeguards is needed to prevent its spread. By minimizing the role of citizens in managing their own communities, however, I argue that these gatekeeping approaches are undemocratic. To develop a more democratic alternative, I draw from the work of Harold D. Lasswell and John …
The Architecture of Political Spaces
The problem of trolls exemplifies the challenges of building democratic communities in the digital environment of social media. Distinguishing trolls from activists can be difficult; democratic theorists have yet to adequately address how to prevent the former while remaining open to the latter. In this article, I outline a theory of democratic politics that takes space as a central element in shaping democratic interactions. Using the work of Jo…
Constructing Digital Democracies
Deliberative democracy requires both equality and difference, with structures that organize a cohesive public while still accommodating the unique perspectives of each participant. While institutions like laws and norms can help to provide this balance, the built environment also plays a role supporting democratic politics—both on- and off-line. In this article, I use the work of Hannah Arendt to articulate two characteristics the built environme…
Gender and the “Great Man”
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The masked demos
Social Media, Social Control, and the Politics of Public Shaming
While there is disagreement over the value of public shaming, scholars largely agree that social media introduce pathologies. But while scholars rightly identify the effects of online public shaming (OPS), they misidentify the cause. Rather than solely a problem of scale, OPS's effects are also shaped by the network structure within which they take place. In this article, I argue that the social conditions necessary for productive public shaming …
Of Humans, Machines, and Extremism
The events surrounding the 2020 U.S. election and the January 6 insurrection have challenged scholarly understanding of concepts like collective action, radicalization, and mobilization. In this article, we argue that online far-right radicalization is better understood as a form of distributed cognition, in which the groups' online environment incentivizes certain patterns of behavior over others. Namely, these platforms organize their users in …
The Architecture of Political Spaces
The problem of trolls exemplifies the challenges of building democratic communities in the digital environment of social media. Distinguishing trolls from activists can be difficult; democratic theorists have yet to adequately address how to prevent the former while remaining open to the latter. In this article, I outline a theory of democratic politics that takes space as a central element in shaping democratic interactions. Using the work of Jo…
Gender and the “Great Man”
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Wives of Western Philosophy
The masked demos
Beyond Gatekeeping
While there is disagreement as to the severity of the digital disinformation problem, scholars and practitioners have largely coalesced around the idea that a new system of safeguards is needed to prevent its spread. By minimizing the role of citizens in managing their own communities, however, I argue that these gatekeeping approaches are undemocratic. To develop a more democratic alternative, I draw from the work of Harold D. Lasswell and John …
Constructing Digital Democracies
Deliberative democracy requires both equality and difference, with structures that organize a cohesive public while still accommodating the unique perspectives of each participant. While institutions like laws and norms can help to provide this balance, the built environment also plays a role supporting democratic politics—both on- and off-line. In this article, I use the work of Hannah Arendt to articulate two characteristics the built environme…
This Forum Is Not A Democracy”
Incels (short for “involuntarily celibate”) have recently gained notoriety for their aggressive, often violent, misogyny, yet incels were not always an antidemocratic social group. They thus pose a challenge for thinking about democracy and identity in (anonymous) digital environments: how can we create spaces for marginalized social groups while ensuring the resulting identities remain democratic? While many scholars point to technological affor…
Outside the Bubble
In Outside the Bubble: Social Media and Political Participation in Western Democracies, Cristian Vaccari and Augusto Valeriani provide a welcome intervention into contemporary discussions of social media’s political effects. Drawing from an impressive data set collected in nine different countries over three years—and covering over one-third of total social media users living in democracies worldwide—the authors make a convincing case that social…
Of Humans, Machines, and Extremism
The events surrounding the 2020 U.S. election and the January 6 insurrection have challenged scholarly understanding of concepts like collective action, radicalization, and mobilization. In this article, we argue that online far-right radicalization is better understood as a form of distributed cognition, in which the groups' online environment incentivizes certain patterns of behavior over others. Namely, these platforms organize their users in …
Social Media, Social Control, and the Politics of Public Shaming
While there is disagreement over the value of public shaming, scholars largely agree that social media introduce pathologies. But while scholars rightly identify the effects of online public shaming (OPS), they misidentify the cause. Rather than solely a problem of scale, OPS's effects are also shaped by the network structure within which they take place. In this article, I argue that the social conditions necessary for productive public shaming …
How Should We Study Multiple Platforms? Lessons from Deliberative Systems Theory
Thinking democracy in a digital age
Governing the Global Square
Judging the Believability of Social Media Misinformation
Does the source and distinctiveness of misinformation in social media posts affect its believability? Across two studies, we examine this question utilizing vignette experimental survey designs that manipulated the source, accuracy of information, and whether the information was familiar or distinctive (unfamiliar). Four different topics with different political or moral positions were used to assess how effects varied across topics. True posts w…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Social Media and Politics (8 works) · Democracy (6 works) · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Public relations (5 works)