In Brazil, there are almost 34 million people who live in news deserts—lacking access to local news. That’s almost 16 percent of Brazil’s population—one of the largest countries in the world.

News deserts are communities “either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level,” according to the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. Far from a Brazilian problem, in 2018, more than 1,300 communities in the U.S. were considered news deserts. The prominence of news deserts is only increasing.

Newspapers close, merge, relocate or reduce so much of their coverage that they become somewhat irrelevant. Communities get left behind and citizens turn to ulterior methods to know what’s going on in their neighborhoods—and that’s where problems can begin.

Full article at Newsweek’s website. Date of publication: 17/11/2021.