Article about "News Desert" in Portugal has been published

The "News Desert" is a consequence of the crisis in journalism around the world. It is a problem that affects more than 60% of Brazilian cities and 18,5% Portuguese cities. These communities lack of newspapers, radios and TVs and do not have local news, local journalism.

I published in July 31, an article about "news desert" in "Estudos de Jornalismo" journal. The article shows the Portuguese situation with an analysis about its orgins: the deficit population in interior of country, especially far from the coast, and the financial issue. The poorest regions are the most affected.

Read the article in "Estudos de Jornalismo" journal

Although the percentage is lower, the Portuguese situation is similar to Brazil. The desert affects the interior and the poorest regions. The same desert occurs in USA, evidence that the problem affects regions in several countries in the world.

Last year, I had written about the topic with two posts in my blog: about Brazil and the first survey of PortugalTo advance this research, the article was produced and published with the first situation map.

The problems of News Desert

Journalism is one of the pillars of democracy. A city without local media will have your democracy affected, as it will have disinformation and political interests in controlling information. Finally, many cities in "news desert" affect the country's democracy. The fight against the problem is a responsability of all autorities.

From the publication, the next researches should advance in two lines: a deepening of the crisis by regions and a discussion about the resolutions, how to solve the issue.The USA showed how to do in some non-profit projects.

I talk about the causes and the ways to solve the problem in the video (only in Portuguese).