This article introduces the notion of affordances-based resistance to digital surveillance as a practice mediated by the socio-technical architecture of digital platforms: a type of countersurveillance that is not organised or structured by the norms and practices of social and political movements, but is instead structured and held together by the technical features of digital media and the participatory cultures thriving on them. Specifically, we consider this resistance passive and mechanical because it is: driven by the affordances (and not resulting from an active manipulation of them); individualised and dispersed on a large scale, not localised in or governed by traditional social organisations (e.g. civic associations); and a form of resistance in which actors are more nudged towards resistance behaviours than deliberately pursuing them. To illustrate, we develop a cross-platform analysis of Twitter and the Google Play Store, examining 270,656 tweets and 23,469 reviews about the contact tracing app Immuni. The article contributes by introducing a novel concept for studying resistance to datafication and by proposing a methodological approach linking low- and high-level affordances through cross-platform analysis.
Strategic documents produced by think tanks occupy an important communicative space between expert knowledge, institutional authority and public policy. This article examines how the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) constructs and legitimises the need to transform European defence in its 2025 strategic dossier, Progress and Shortfalls in Europe's Defence: An Assessment . Adopting a document-centred qualitative case study, the analysis combines critical discourse analysis, framing and discursive legitimation with complementary attention to argumentation, securitisation and strategic narratives. The dossier is analysed in its entirety, comprising 98 substantive pages, approximately 62,095 words and 440 unique identifiable sources. Qualitative coding identifies seven recurring discursive operations through which European defence is constructed as an urgent, measurable and relational strategic problem. The findings show how evidence, institutional and expert authority, urgency and feasibility are articulated to legitimate defence transformation. The article contributes to Communication and Media Studies by conceptualising the expert strategic document as a communicative site where strategic problems and future trajectories are constructed and legitimised.
Public Service Media (PSM) are currently undergoing a structural transformation driven by the digitalization of the media ecosystem. Audience fragmentation, the emergence of multi-platform environments and the growing centrality of digital platforms are compelling public service broadcasters to rethink their organizational models, editorial practices and content distribution strategies. This article examines how different European PSM organizations are responding to these challenges and explores how digital transition processes are contributing to the redefinition of the role of PSM in contemporary media systems. The study draws on a comparative analysis of five public service operators – British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, the United Kingdom), RTÉ (Ireland), RTBF (Belgium), Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE, Spain),and RTP (Portugal) – supported by semi-structured interviews with key institutional actors and a systematic review of strategic reports, concession contracts and regulatory documents produced between 2018 and 2025. The findings reveal that, despite national specificities, several convergent trends are emerging, including the growing importance of digital platforms, the reorganization of production structures into convergent and cross-media models, and the redefinition of public service missions in a media environment shaped by platformization and intensified informational competition. The article argues that digital transformation does not diminish the relevance of PSM; on the contrary, it reinforces their importance as critical infrastructures for trustworthy information, cultural diversity and democratic cohesion.
Why do mass-fatality events with comparable human tolls generate unequal political resonance? This article examines Greek newspaper coverage of two major 2023 tragedies, the Tempi train crash and the Pylos shipwreck, to assess how victim identity shapes evaluative framing, responsibility attribution, and political consequentiality. Drawing on a within-country comparison of three ideologically distinct newspapers, the study analyses how each event was narrated, politicized, and sustained over time. The findings show that, although both tragedies were covered within a broadly negative register, Tempi generated denser evaluative language, more direct attribution of responsibility, and more durable integration into debates over governance and institutional accountability. By contrast, Pylos was more frequently framed through humanitarian, administrative, or border-management narratives and declined more rapidly after the initial news cycle. These differences were patterned rather than categorical and persisted across outlets. The article argues that routine journalistic framing practices help determine not only how tragedy is represented, but whether it becomes politically consequential as a sustained object of public accountability.
