Survey points to accelerated reduction of ‘news deserts’ in the country

The Atlas da Notícia, an annual survey on local journalism in Brazil, found in 2021 a 9.5% drop in what it classifies as news deserts, that is, municipalities without any information vehicle.
Now there are 2,968, 312 fewer than in the 2020 census, but still reaching nearly half of the country’s municipalities — and keeping 29.3 million or 13.8% of Brazilians without access to journalistic information.

The result is mainly due to the greater number of digital vehicles, which surpassed radios and now form the largest of the four segments evaluated. They range from established websites to blogs, podcasts, Facebook and Telegram profiles, but not YouTube — which is in the pipeline.

Last year, according to the survey, there were 4,670 digital vehicles (2,791 blogs and social media pages), 4,597 radio stations, 3,214 print vehicles and 1,246 TVs.

“This does not necessarily mean that they are doing good journalism”, warns journalist Sérgio Spagnuolo, from the Volt Data Lab agency, responsible for data analysis and mapping of the Atlas.

It is the second year of reduction of “deserts” in Brazil. In 2020, the drop had been 5.9%, also highlighted by the rise of digital vehicles. For Spagnuolo, it’s partly an effect of the longer people have been online, spurring more coverage.

This time, the increase in the number of vehicles was distributed across several regions — and also by segments, with the printed, for example, registering a greater number of vehicles in the Northeast.

Made with the collaboration of 174 volunteers from 28 journalism schools, this is the fifth Atlas of the News, the third with the same methodology, allowing comparison. It is carried out by the Instituto para o Projor (Development of Journalism), sponsored by Meta, the Facebook holding company.