Uncovering news deserts in Europe : risks and opportunities for local and community media in the EU

This research is focused on detecting challenges and opportunities for local and community media and identifying news deserts in the 27 EU Member States. It entails a holistic approach towards the concept of news desert, interpreting it as an area that is lacking sufficient, reliable and diverse information from trustworthy media sources. The risk for local and community media has been assessed through several indicators which are related to the number of media outlets, economic and political conditions, as well as degree of safety of local journalists and the social inclusiveness of local and community media towards minorities, marginalised communities and the capability of engaging with the audience. This investigation also identified examples of best innovative practices in the local and community media sector that could be deemed beneficial for a vibrant and open public sphere. The study's holistic approach considers the complexities and specificities of local media markets in each EU Member State. In some countries, the issues and challenges for local media are widespread across the entire country - while in others, these challenges are limited to specific regions or even cities - leaving certain communities without access to local media that disseminate public interest information. This assessment is not fixed in time and requires continuous monitoring. Looking at the existence of local media and local journalists on the ground, the situation for news services in rural areas is increasingly problematic, due to both issues related to distribution and a decreasing number of points of sale, as well as to the digital shift coupled with an ageing rural population. Furthermore, newsrooms and journalists are increasingly centralised in the main regional cities, reaching the most remote areas only occasionally or conducting desk journalism exclusively. Public service media, often entrusted with covering the entire national territory, has proven to be crucial in guaranteeing an adequate coverage of regional and local areas, both geographically, and in terms of offering services in minority languages.