According to a preliminary study by the ‘Local Media for Democracy’ project (LM4D) published on Monday 10 July, one of the causes of news desertification in certain parts of the EU is the lack of adequate and sustainable funding for independent local media.
“News deserts” are areas where citizens do not receive independent media coverage dedicated to them and do not receive quality, differentiated information of public interest. According to LM4D, it is difficult to assess the exact extent of the local media crisis due to the lack of sufficient research on the subject.
However, their preliminary study indicates that the viability of local media is increasingly dependent on financial support from the State. However, subsidies are not awarded according to the same criteria throughout the EU. Some media are then forced to turn to media conglomerates or political parties to ensure their economic survival.
The consequences of this “political and commercial capture”, the text stresses, are a lack of editorial independence and excessive concentration of media ownership. For LM4D, this, combined with a non-equitable and non-transparent distribution of public funding, is contributing to the existence of news deserts in certain areas in the EU.
The study also considers that, while local media “navigate [its] opportunities and [its] setbacks”, digital transformation is tending to call their existence into question.
The LM4D project, funded by the European Commission, is led by a consortium of organisations headed by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). It aims to support local media in Europe’s “news deserts” by strengthening their independence and sustainability as well as their capacity for innovation, business strategies and audience engagement (see EUROPE 13085/43).
The final study, due in early 2024, will map the “news deserts” in the EU and examine the challenges faced in areas and the best practices for tackling them.
Preliminary study: https://aeur.eu/f/880 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)