The 'Deserto de Notícias' is a study that began in the United States with the aim of finding out which localities did not have local news, that is, that had no newspaper and no local radio, and was also carried out in Brazil and now in Portugal.

And what is a news desert? The associate researcher at Labcom/UBI - University of Beira Interior and author of the study, Giovanni Ramos, explains to Lusa that "these are regions that do not have local news, they are communities that, if the population wants to know what is happening in their city, in their community, needs" to look for "informal means because there is no journalism to attend to this".

In Portugal "we have a problem that affects more or less 20% of Portuguese municipalities", points out the author of the study, which was updated in September.

According to 2021 data, 19.8% of Portuguese municipalities are in the news desert.

That is, 61 municipalities in the 2021 data, adds Giovanni Ramos, being a localized problem "and that is not very different from other countries that had already carried out this survey as well".