Central European Journal of Communication

ABSTRACT: This article examines how cringe operates as a low-intensity public evaluative affect through which political authority is publicly negotiated within the platform society. Drawing on affect theory, platform society theory, and a topological understanding of political power, it conceptualises cringe as a collectively organised affect through which authority–public relationships become publicly recognised and evaluated. Empirically, the article analyses platform communication surrounding the Serbian student protest movement between December 2024 and December 2025 through an interpretive qualitative analysis of content on Instagram and X. The analysis focuses on three performative episodes – Ćacilend, Barricades, and Blockades – that reveal a dominant authority–public relationship, its public contestation, and an alternative configuration grounded in collective participation. The findings show that cringe registers moments of topological misalignment in which dominant authority–public relationships lose cultural credibility while alternative configurations of authority–public relationships become publicly recognisable.

Full text: https://journals.ptks.pl/cejc/article/view/1051/pdf