Rita Figueiras. Holds a PhD in Communication Studies (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 2007), a MA in Communication, Culture and Information Technology (ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 2001), and an under-graduation in Social and Cultural Communication (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 1997). She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate on Political Communication and Electoral Behavior (Universita degli Studi di Milano, 2010) and a Postgraduate Certificate on Political Thought and American Politics (University of Massachusetts, 2008). Associate Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa where she teaches Sociology of Communication (Under-graduate level), Political Communication (MA level) and Communication Studies (PhD level). Together with Professors Göran Bolin (Södertörn University, Sweden) and Veronika Kalmus (University of Tartu, Estonia), she is the Principal Investigator of the research project “Social Media Surveillance and Experiences of Authoritarianism”, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation ((www.rj.se). Her research interests focuses mainly on the relationship between media and democracy, namely datafication and mediatization, political journalism, surveillance and media resistance, political knowledge and entertainment. She is a resident commentator for political communication literacy on national news radio TSF (https://www.tsf.pt/programa/a-espantosa-realidade-das-coisas.html). She has published 39 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 33 book chapters and 10 books.