The existence of a vibrant and independent local media ecosystem that serves the public interest of its local communities is a cornerstone for our democratic societies. Local, regional and community media are the key to empowering citizens to grasp and exercise their rights in the communities where they live, and they are better placed to gain the trust of their native audience and confront disinformation and misinformation.
Today, however, the very existence of local, regional and community media has become uncertain in many areas of the European Union.
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) with a consortium of partners, the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), International Media Support (IMS) and Journalismfund.eu launched the project “Local Media for Democracy” to help struggling local, regional and community media in the news desert areas in Europe by providing financial support and organisational capacity building.
The project started on 1 February 2023 and developed over a period of 18 months. The project was co-funded by the European Union.
Sofia Verza - Tijana Blagojev - Danielle Da Costa Leite Borges - Jan Erik Kermer - Matteo Trevisan - Urbano Reviglio
The CMPF team has developed a map that shows the local news deserts risk score (ranging from 0 to 100%) for each member state per indicator (Infrastructure of Local Media, Market and Reach, Safety of Local Journalists, Editorial Independence, and Social Inclusiveness). Clicking on a specific country will open a pop up with the bar chart with risk scores by indicators for that country and a button that will direct you to the country’s dedicated web page, offering a comprehensive report on the local media landscape within that nation.
Interactive mapWhat are "news deserts" in Europe? CMPF researchers developed a definition for a new project aimed at supporting struggling local, regional and community media.
All in all, it is still unclear what the role of social media is in mitigating or contributing to news deserts.
This blog post explores best practices in the local and community media sector and offer some examples found across Europe.
Having a social impact is a cornerstone of journalism. This is even more true for local media for their proximity to the social issues they cover. We investigate best practices among local and community media to fulfill this goal.
In this blog post, we look at the business models used by local media outlets in the EU. According to our data collection, the subscriptions model has been identified in different local news media as their main source of revenue.