4. The spread of journalistic blind spots

Chapter summary

• The Spread of Journalistic Blind Spots/News Deserts, related to local and community media, in the 27 EU countries – a study released in spring 2024
• The lack of local media and community media is an increasing problem in many parts of Europe – not only in rural areas but also in densely populated regions, partly because local editorial coverage has struggled to keep pace with urban expansion.
• The number of local journalists has significantly declined, due in part to the centralization of news organizations’ resources and the closure of newsrooms driven by reduced advertising revenue, a low willingness to pay for journalism among an aging population, and fewer points of sale for newspapers.
• Local media appear to be particularly vulnerable to political and commercial forces taking control of the publications, using them for propaganda rather than independent journalism.
• Examples of successful initiatives in local journalism include the establishment of hyper-local publications, news initiatives that proactively involve citizens in news dissemination, podcasts, newsletters, and what this report refers to as ‘slow journalism’.

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We are engaging in this study because it provides exceptional insight into the capabilities of editorial media at local and regional levels across the EU. This type of study has not been previously conducted. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the health of European media, we examine this study alongside CMPF’s annual Media Pluralism Monitor. In chapter six, we will assess the development of media capability in relation to the data on democratic development and media freedom, examining correlations and possible causality.

The new study “Uncovering news deserts in Europe: risks and opportunities for local and community media in the EU”  was presented in March 2024. It was conducted by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) in collaboration with 47 researchers from the 27 EU countries. The study is part of the more comprehensive program called Local Media for Democracy (LM4D).

While the U.S. has systematically tracked editorial media coverage for many years, only now are we gaining a comprehensive overview for EU countries. The U.S. has recorded a significant decline in local and regional publications over the past 15 years, while most large national news publications have survived – and, in some cases, even experienced positive development.

The theoretical introduction of the report references previous research, among other sources, to justify the importance of highlighting the phenomenon of “news deserts”:

“Tackling and understanding news deserts is of utmost relevance since their existence contributes to cultural, economic, political and societal divides (Barclay et al., 2022), as there is a correlation between the consumption of local news and voter turnout and civic participation (Barthel et al., 2016).”

The lack of comprehensive records on the capacity of editorial media in EU countries over time has resulted in highly variable access to historical data. In other words, it is difficult to say anything certain about the development over time for the EU as a whole. We will take a closer look at some specific countries with the aim to extract historical data that can show the development in recent years. 

The EU study presented in spring 2024 focuses on the spread and capacity of local and so-called community media, rather than national media. However, the CMPF has created an annual Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) covering the last 10 years, which provides insight into the development of national media in the EU. At the end of this chapter, we will discuss the MPM to give a better overview of the development for both local and national media in the region.

The program that conducted this study – definitions, methodology and data foundation

The methodology and definitions have been thoroughly explained in the report, so we will limit ourselves to a brief explanation here. Methodology and 55 variables that are considered for each individual country.

CMPF writes that they are interpreting the concept of news deserts “…as an area that is lacking sufficient, reliable and diverse information from trustworthy media sources.”

The study has concluded with the following definition of ‘local media‘:  “…as outlets operating across various sectors (print, audiovisual, radio and digital) at different sub-national levels, and catering to local and more geographically circumscribed audiences.”

Regarding the definition of Community Media:

“Our understanding of the difference between local media and community media is that local media are primarily defined by geography, while community media are defined by target audiences and/or themes, often in combination with geography.”

Based on national researchers’ responses to 55 questions, a description of each country’s status across six different areas, or indicators, has been provided. 

These indicators are described in the report:

• Granularity of the infrastructure of local media: This indicator assesses the presence and offer of local and community media services in a country […]
• Market and reach: This indicator assesses the economic conditions, the viability, and sustainability for local and community media […] 
• Safety of local journalists: This indicator assesses the situation for local journalists when it comes to their working and physical safety, also assessing the presence of SLAPPs (Strategic litigation against public participation) […]
• Editorial independence: This indicator assesses the independence of local and media from political and commercial pressures […]
• Social inclusiveness: This indicator assesses the extent and quality of news offered for and about minorities and marginalised communities […]  
• Best practices and open public sphere: This indicator assesses the actual existence of innovative practice for enhancing an open and thriving public sphere in specific communities […] 

The three indicators of “Granularity of the infrastructure of local media”, “Market and reach” and “Social inclusiveness” are directly relevant to the theme of this analysis to assess editorial media’s ability to influence the democratic level. 

The indicator “Editorial independence” is already mentioned in chapter 3 on media freedom. 

The report describes a particular methodological problem for the indicator ‘Market and reach’:

“The most telling finding from this research is the lack of data in several countries, particularly concerning local and community media revenue and the lack of audience reach data. As such, the country experts assessed the situation, relying on sources such as interviews with experts and relevant stakeholders, as well as reports from various NGOs and research organisations.”

For each of the six indicators, each country’s situation has been assessed on a risk scale ranging from ‘Very low risk’ to ‘Very high risk’. Here, ‘risk’ primarily reflects how satisfactory the current situation is, rather than serving as a predictive label, as risk gradings can sometimes imply. 

The project coordinator for the study at CMPF, Sofia Verza, explains why it has been done in this way:

“The reason we have chosen to grade based on “risk” across the different measurement areas is because we did not want to create an index that is easily used to rank the countries. In our context, ‘low risk’ indicates that the situation in an area is relatively good, while ‘high risk’ suggests that the situation is problematic and, from a long-term perspective, has the potential to deteriorate further.”

Verza explains how they use the responses from the questionnaire to nuance and enrich the situation descriptions, such as in the case of ‘granularity of infrastructure of local media’: 

“When we are calculating risk in terms of local outlets’ and journalists’ presence on the ground, we must look at more than whether there is an editorial team covering an area or not. We must consider, for example, how many journalists they have, whether the number of journalists is increasing or decreasing, whether the editorial team sends journalists to the outer areas of its geography, and what the relationship between private media and public service media in the area is.”

Status 2023

The study explains that in some countries, challenges for local media are widespread, while in others, the problems are limited to specific areas. 

The study also points out that the challenges faced by local media are complex and varied. Some are due to demographic shifts and changes in local community infrastructure, while others are attributed to declining advertising revenue and a lack of fair and balanced public support schemes. 

Regarding the demographic and local infrastructure changes mentioned above, factors include population decline, an aging population, and fewer outlets for newspapers due in part to the closure of kiosks and stores, among other reasons. Regarding the declining advertising revenue and lack of public support schemes, factors include the inability to compensate for falling advertising revenues with higher subscription incomes, as willingness to pay for news is too low. Why the willingness to pay is so low and how this challenge can be addressed is a topic we will return to in Part 2, where we will look at possible improvements and solutions.

In the following section, we describe the aggregated results of the study, focusing primarily on the indicators ‘Granularity of the infrastructure of local media’, ‘Market and reach’, and ‘Social inclusiveness’, as explained in the chapter Media Pluralism in the 27 EU-countries + five candidate countries.

Granularity of local media infrastructure

This indicator addresses the presence of local and community media in rural suburban and urban areas, as well as journalists’ local presence and whether they work for private or public service media. Each individual indicator is ranked on a scale from ‘Very low risk’ to ‘Very high risk’. On the maps, the lightest colors signify low risk while the darkest colors mark high risk.

Austria and Denmark are the only countries where the national researchers do not report any news deserts and therefore assess the risk as very low. However, even here, researchers believe that areas without local journalistic coverage will emerge if the problems facing local media are not addressed relatively quickly. 

In most other EU countries, the risk assessment ranges from medium to very high.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia evaluate the offer in rural areas as high risk, while seven countries – Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland – scored low risk, while Austria and Malta scored very low risk.

“The remaining countries (most of the EU countries) scored a medium risk, meaning there are local media outlets in rural areas, but their distribution is problematic (e.g., decreasing number of selling points, low Internet penetration)…” as summarized in the report.

Sofia Verza explains what surprised researchers about the indicator of Granularity:

“A significant finding, which we did not anticipate, is that the situation for local and community media is not ideal, even in urban areas. One explanation seems to be that as large cities grow, new local journalistic initiatives are not being established on the outskirts. Researchers in some countries report that coverage of these areas is limited to journalists ‘from outside’ covering crime or other negative phenomena in these new areas.”

Market and reach

As Figure 2 shows, the highest levels of risk on this indicator are in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, and lowest in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal. Market and reach is the indicator that shows the highest risk, overall, of all the indicators.

In the study, it is argued that local and community media have been hit harder by the economic crisis, in light of digitalization, compared to national media:

“The crisis related to the digital transformation of news media has disrupted the media ecosystem, particularly at the local level, considering its inferior market size, limited audience reach, weaker bargaining power, and limited resources to adapt to digitalization compared to nationwide counterparts.”

The economic challenges are primarily due to declining advertising revenue and a low willingness among users to pay for subscriptions. As a result, lower advertising revenue has not been offset by increased subscription income. The impression is that in Europe, only Sweden and Norway have largely succeeded with such a strategy.

Research teams in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Greece report a widespread shutdown of local news media in their countries. This applies to print newspapers, radio, and TV stations alike. In Bulgaria, a news agency has also been shut down. 

On the other hand, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Malta report a stable local media market with few closures.

It is, however, specified that..”… even in a context where no immediate issue of this nature is identified, as is the case in Austria, the current situation in the local media market may lead to the creation of news desert areas in certain parts of the country if nothing is done to face the issue.”

Social inclusiveness

To what extent minorities are included in news dissemination is a question that significantly reflects on editorial media’s ability to contribute to liberal democracies. 

The highest risk levels for this indicator are reported in Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, while the lowest risk levels are observed in Finland and Germany. The situation is generally less risky where Public Service Media (PSM) have a presence. However, even PSMs have limited impact in minority areas where political conditions prevent local recognition of minorities, as in Malta, where English is the only other language represented. In Greece, minorities – whether legally recognized and not – also lack their own editorial coverage.

There are a variety of complex reasons for the lack of coverage tailored to minorities. One factor is the way national media support is structured. For example, the report mentions Lithuania:
“The media support system, including the new model of media support, the Media Support Fund (Medijų rėmimo fondas), does not identify marginalised people as an audience group with specific needs.”

Under this indicator, the national researchers are asked to answer the relatively complicated question: “Do local media provide sufficient public interest news to meet the critical information needs of the communities they serve?”

This question is important and relevant, but will still be controversial, at least in a Nordic tradition and context. This is not necessarily due to the question itself, but rather based on who is asked to respond. Some will argue that questions of this nature should be left to the editors themselves, as part of editorial freedom and independence. However, in countries with press support schemes, including the Nordics, it is common to impose media content requirements for support eligibility. Opinions will likely differ, though, on how detailed such requirements can be without infringing on media freedom.

Another approach to answering this question is to consider what type of information best meets “Critical Information Needs” (CIN) – especially if we add “…in order to contribute to a liberal democracy.” 

The Swedish media researcher Elisabeth Stur, at Mid Sweden University, along with Asta Cepaite Nilsson from Lund University, delivered the Swedish contribution to the LM4D study. 

Stur shares examples of good local journalism, such as local investigative projects, critical coverage of important issues for the local community, and interviews with people who have something significant to say. At the same time, she is also concerned with the identity-creating effect of local journalism and emphasizes that local media have a function beyond thorough, often investigative, news journalism:

“You can think that news at a local level is a bit ridiculous. “Runaway cats” is a characteristic I have heard being used. But you shouldn’t underestimate this type of local journalism, because it builds community.”

Elisabeth Stur believes that a sense of belonging, as in a common identity, is an important factor in preventing polarization and isolation.

In Part 2 of this analysis, we will take a closer look at the prerequisites for editorial media to strengthen their role as defenders of liberal democracies, and we will look at concrete initiatives for improvement. Here, we will also return to the EU countries’ responses to the question: “Do local media provide sufficient public interest news to meet the critical information needs of the communities they serve?”

A closer look at six of these countries

A survey of blind spots and news deserts, both in a geographical and thematic sense, has never been done in the EU before. Therefore, we lack historical data to show how this has changed over time. 

At the same time, we know that the past 10 to 15 years have been particularly challenging for most editor-driven media worldwide. This is largely due to digitalization, and heightened competition for advertising revenues from global tech giants. 

To compensate for this lack of available data for the EU as a whole, we will take a closer look at six specific countries.

Sweden

Hyper-locals – a possible game changer?

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 2 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 3 globally (RSF) 

Sweden is one of the world’s best-functioning liberal democracies, and the country is also among the very best in terms of living conditions, freedom of speech, and media freedom. When even a country like this begins to experience polarizing tendencies and growing support for extreme and illiberal forces, understanding the reasons behind this shift becomes especially interesting. Swedish editorial media do not enjoy a stable or secure existence, despite having stronger protections and support systems than in most other countries.

According to the report, about half of Sweden’s local newsrooms have disappeared over the past 20 years. This does not mean that the areas that have lost one or more local newsrooms have lost all editorial coverage within their geographic area, but that it is now more often done ‘remotely’ from nearby cities and towns. Elisabeth Stur is critical of this development:

“The development over the last 20 years is dramatic. A key trend is that a few large owners have taken control over almost all local media in Sweden. They have rationalized, centralized, and reduced costs. In this way, journalists have become further removed from the local communities they are meant to cover.”

The report refers to statistics showing that daily consumption of local news, from newspapers and broadcasting, has decreased from 78 percent in 1986 to 61 percent in 2022. The researchers are looking for explanations.

“You could say that there are three different trends that affect each other. One is the loss of the audience, or the audience moving somewhere else.The other thing is the loss of ads in Sweden. Advertisers are increasingly turning to tech giants like Facebook and Google. And the third explanation is the economic downturn, inflation, which means that people have less money and need to reduce their spending, says Elisabeth Stúr.”

Growing interest in digital subscriptions

In recent years, since 2020, the decline in local news consumption appears to have been reversed, with a slight increase registered. One explanation is the growing interest in digital subscriptions. With this, it appears that the spread of Swedish news deserts has slowed, according to the report:

“Between 2017 and 2023, news desert areas, also called blank spots, have become more frequent, but have somewhat ceased to expand over the last few years.”

It is especially interesting that the Swedish researchers attribute this, at least in part, to the increased focus on and interest in hyper-local news initiatives.

Elisabeth Stur says she has several examples of journalists leaving their permanent positions in larger newsrooms to start small, local news initiatives.

“They’re digging deeper. These are small and agile initiatives that are doing the deep reportage and news digging, which the ordinary newspapers can’t afford, says Stur, who views this as part of a trend.”

“We can start talking about how things have stabilized. And that’s primarily due to these hyper-local initiatives. But you must also add that (the newspaper) Dagens Nyheter (DN) is making an effort. They’re trying to do local, locally. They’ve seen that what has been done so far is a dead end. Mitt Media in Bonnier is also trying to do something at a hyper-local level. There are initiatives that are underway – they’ve realized that they have to focus on the local,” says Elisabeth Stúr.

Lithuania

“We have an information crisis and a social crisis that mutually reinforce each other”

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 29 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 13  globally (RSF) 

In the “news desert” report, Lithuania is described as a country where there is an active public and political debate about news deserts and the conditions of local media. The debate includes participants from various sectors, including academics, media organizations, minority organizations, and politicians. It is also interesting to note that Lithuania is one of the five countries that has performed relatively well on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index over the past ten years.

In the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), under the Fundamental Protection indicator, the risk for Lithuania decreased by 12 percentage points from 2021 to 2022. No other EU or candidate country has experienced more positive development in this area during this period. The MPM2024, with data from 2023, shows that Lithuania is one of only seven countries, out of the 32 European countries analyzed, that has a satisfactory level of media pluralism. 

Stricter transparency requirements

Professor Balčytienė from Vytautas Magnus University is one of the researchers that has authored Lithuania’s chapter in the “news desert” report. She believes that one of the most important reasons why Lithuania performs relatively well, both in terms of analyses of media freedom and other indicators of a well-functioning media system, is the extensive political effort to impose much stricter transparency requirements on media owners.

“So, all media owners are obliged annually to report according to the media law, and to report all the changes that have taken place in their media business.”

“This increased business transparency, and commercial aspect taken into consideration, makes it natural to view these new requirements as perhaps the most important media policy measure in Lithuania in many years, she explains.”

The attention to media ownership and transparency must be viewed in the context of the problems Lithuania and other former Soviet republics faced with oligarch dominance in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There has been significant focus within the three Baltic states on avoiding the “oligarchization” of the media. However, Professor Balčytienė believes that the new rules imposed on Lithuanian media owners will not solve all the ownership issues:

“I wouldn’t say that the situation is good, because there are many other ways to play around. And I would say that even though the media business side is doing okay, the journalistic side is not that comfortable.

She criticizes media owners for investing too little in journalism and in journalists.

“There’s a need for better working conditions and improved possibilities for journalistic production. That side needs stronger input from the state, and also support for different independent journalists, such as stipends or scholarships to journalists producing investigative journalism.”

Improvement is underway, she tells: 

“A huge restructuring of the media support fund has recently been finalized, and new information is coming out about scholarships granted to journalists, on competition basis, of course, and there is even support for some of the cultural community media, according to different programs.”

She believes that despite positive developments, Lithuania struggles with some of the same problems as many other countries.

Atypical development

Professor Balčytienė believes that news coverage at the national level is relatively good in Lithuania and that they have had a development over the past 20 to 25 years that is quite atypical. 

“A few dominant Lithuanian news media started as purely online media in competition with major print newspapers. The online media won this battle, and today we have no daily newspapers in Lithuania. Print newspapers are published one to two days a week,” she says.

  The report identifies three specific areas in the country as news deserts, without any clear link to particularly weak GDP per capita or to poorly developed digital infrastructure.

This is explained as follows in the report:

“…the risks in the decline of news affecting the local media landscape are more strongly linked to political and business alignments, a diminishing professional independence and infrastructural conditions (media viability and news distribution models), than being directly attributed to purely regional-economic matters or to those relating to accessibility to digital-technological information.”

At a general level, Auksė Balčytienė expresses ambivalence about the effects of the information explosion brought about by social networks:

“I think, of course, digital technologies and digitalization with its abundance of information gives increasing possibilities for people to access information and to express their views and opinions. We can say that this generally democratized this expressionism, but it has also challenged the kind of democratic understanding of core principles and core values of plurality.”

“And then we see that this plurality of information is becoming a factor that in some ways works against democracy, because we have to include all the views and even very extreme, radical, negativity and hate – and all that goes with dysfunctional communication. So, we end up in a situation where the information overflow goes against democracy and against human rights,” she says.

Here’s how she explains what she calls an “information crisis”. The “social crisis” aspect of her model refers to socioeconomic conditions that leave people outside the stream of verified and reliable news. Instead, they pick up fragmented pieces of information from social networks and combine it with their own assumptions and fears. In this way, prejudices and unrest are amplified and grow.

Professor Auksė Balčytienė argues that information policy and social policy should be developed in conjunction:

“If people with lower education and lower income are unable to go to, for instance, the theatre, even cinemas, or don’t allow their children to choose different kinds of channels…well, to participate and to get better education, that’s already a trap. So, I think we need to think that new kinds of inequalities are emerging online, not only the classical ones, like segregating people by income, gender, education. I think polarization is taking ground also on the basis of how different knowledge and facts are being perceived.”

 

Germany

No “news deserts” so far

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 11 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 10 globally (RSF) 

The German media market is more heavily regulated than most other markets and is largely governed at the federal state level. This means that Germany has 13 different media laws that regulate local radio stations, and, in some areas, these also cover other types of local media.

“I just wrote my PhD thesis on local radio in North Rhine-Westphalia. And that’s somehow a very special topic because it’s very, very highly regulated,    more than anywhere else in the world, says professor Jan Christopher Kalbhenn, Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law, University of Münster and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. 

He is responsible for Germany’s contribution to the “News desert” study. And he continues…

“But so far it works, and there are 46 local radio stations in North Rhine-Westphalia and all of them have their own local editorial department.”

The report states that Germany still has a robust media landscape, including the availability of local media. It describes a situation where local newspapers and radio stations are available in most areas.

“So, in theory, there’s no news desert in Germany. But the trends might get us there, says Kalbhenn who is also quite critical of the German local media and believes many of them appear outdated.”

What content do they produce? What distribution ways do they choose?

It’s quite slow. In the local media, this is not empirically based, but my own observation is that these radio people are rather old and there is no fresh blood. These local radio stations are rather unattractive. It’s a decline. It’s old-fashioned. And it’s not journalistically up-to-date.”

Professor Kalbhenn describes a situation where the number of printed newspapers decreases year by year, with no new subscribers. The transition of media from analog to digital is underway but is progressing very slowly.

“There is a shift, but it’s not one to one. Print goes down faster than digital rises up. As one of the results, you can see that there is a lot of consolidation of the media market in Germany, on the local press side. And they somehow work more and more centralized.”

“They close the local editorial departments and focus on the more regional and national news, which they can produce centralized. So the real local journalism is in decline, slowly but steadily,“ he says. 

The report says that the number of journalists in local newspapers has decreased by 17% from 2010 to 2020.

Low willingness to pay

In Germany, like almost all other countries in Europe, there is a low willingness to pay for digital news subscriptions. In other words, it’s the classic scenario: advertising revenue has largely disappeared, print circulation is declining, and there’s an inability to offset losses from analog operations with new digital revenue. However, Kalbhenn sees some hope, as willingness to pay for digital editions is gradually improving.

At the same time he believes that subscription products need to be improved, primarily to become attractive to young users.

“It’s my personal view that these subscription services by the traditional local news publishers are not that attractive. They’re not adapted to the young generation. It’s still old-fashioned and it’s as expensive as the print. It’s always for 12 months or 24 months.”

Germany has a very comprehensive system for Public Service Media (PSM) and spends 8 billion euros annually on it.

“The justification for the system was originally to be a counterbalance to the private media. Now we need the public broadcaster also as a counterweight to the big platforms. So, that’s the new, how to say, theoretical approach.”

Kalbhenn describes Germany’s PSM as relatively well-functioning, ensuring the production of high-quality content that private media would not be able to provide. However, there is also a loud political debate about PSM’s dominance. He believes that, from a media policy perspective, the future of PSM will be the most important issue in the coming years.

“There’s high pressure for reformation of the public broadcasting system. It’s really big. It’s really slow. It’s really old. It needs a remake, “says professor Jan Christian Kalbhenn. 

Hungary

“Half of Hungarian journalists think that it is their role to be loyal to the government, not to act as watchdogs.”

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 97 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 67 globally (RSF) 

Hungary has gained notoriety over the past 14 years, both within and outside Europe, that many Hungarians would likely prefer to leave behind.

In 2010, the Fidesz party won the election in Hungary, and Viktor Orbán became Prime Minister. He has followed the playbook of illiberal leaders and likely expanded it, becoming an example of what can happen when democracy and its institutions are not adequately protected. Numerous organizations and political leaders have warned other countries against following Hungary’s lead. This did not prevent Poland from electing the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) to victory in the 2015 and 2019 elections. During this period, PiS followed Hungary’s example by taking control of key societal institutions, including the judiciary and media, and maintained a relatively close relationship with Hungary. In 2023, Poland elected a more liberal government, called the Civic Platform, led by Donald Tusk.

The News Desert study’s chapter on Hungary indicates that there has been no debate about local news deserts in the country. However, there was a political debate when Fidesz-friendly oligarchs took over all local newspapers in the country in 2016, making them part of Fidesz’s media conglomerate, KESMA, from 2018.

The report emphasizes that the problem with news deserts in the Hungarian context is about one-party dominance and that citizens do not have access to independent journalism with diverse viewpoints and debate.

Foreign investors

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990, many Hungarian newspapers were privatized and foreign investors entered the market.

Gábor Polyák, Professor of Media Law and Media Policy and Head of the Media and Communication Department at Eötvös Loránd University (and Head of the watchdog organization Mertek Media Monitor), is one of the two Hungarians responsible for the Hungarian portion of the news desert report. 

He explains what happened with media ownership after 1990:

“The big problem was that in 2008, because of the global financial crisis, most of these investors decided to leave not only Hungary, but the entire region. Our bad luck was that this was the time when Orbán came.”

“So there were several media outlets on the market to be sold, and there was only one buyer, and that was the economic circle of the ruling party, Fidesz. It was very, very easy to expand on the media market for businessmen connected to the ruling party. So, there were several weaknesses in the media system before 2010, he explains.”

In addition to privatized county newspapers, there are municipality-owned and financed newspapers in Hungary. Regarding this group of newspapers, the report states:

“…these are newspapers serving local political propaganda purposes, regardless of the political colour of the municipality concerned. Although their operation is financed exclusively or predominantly from public funds, there are no guarantees, either in law or in local regulations, that impartial local information can be provided. This does not mean, of course, that all municipal newspapers serve party-political purposes.”

Despite this bleak backdrop, Hungary has also seen the rise of several new digital editorial establishments since 2016. Many of them have been founded by journalists who lost their jobs at county papers. These new ventures are largely funded by donations from individuals and organizations. The report states that this kind of support is not without problems:

“This project-based support is risky, and the implementation of projects can be to the detriment of the outlets’ core activity. In addition, the media receiving these grants have been exposed for years to smear campaigns and were stigmatised by government communication as ‘dollar media’ representing foreign interests.”

In 2023, eight of these digital newsrooms began collaborating to share content.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Professor Polyak’s analysis is the change in Hungarian journalists’ understanding of their own role and profession.

“No one thought before 2010 that journalists can be turned into this direction. Now the majority of the journalists are also taking part in the functioning of this regime. They don’t think that they should be watchdogs.

T“hey think they should be loyal to the government and defend the interests of the government. This is not, how to say, the attitude of the journalists, what you want to see or what you can read in textbooks.”

We will return to this issue when we “Gather the parts” in Chapter 6. 

The following excerpt from the report summarizes the situation regarding news deserts in Hungary:

“In the Hungarian local media, the phenomenon of news deserts is, therefore, not fundamentally the result of the lack of coverage of local news services in certain municipalities or regions but rather due to the fact that much of the local media is under strong political influence. This is true not only for the pro-government media but also for most of the local newspapers in opposition-led municipalities. Only in municipalities with an independent news portal, or where local government has created the conditions for the independence of the media it owns, can residents find a non-partisan source of information.”

Italy

A challenging situation for both journalistic capacity and public trust

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 24 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 46 globally (RSF)

“I’m very pessimistic about the future in this context. Not primarily the future of the media industry, but the future of how people organize themselves to gather information, to elaborate this information, and to shape an idea of what is the reality – what is the truth.”

These are the words of Associate Professor Andrea Mangani from the University of Pisa – the man responsible for Italy’s contribution to the news deserts report.

The report, and the in-depth interview with Mangani, paint a picture of the media situation in Italy that has gone from relatively weak to even weaker over the past 15 years. This is primarily due to the diminished capacity of edited media and significant challenges in trust. It describes how the journalistic capacity has been significantly reduced since 2008/2009:

“The number of local media journalists has declined by approximately 50% since 2008/2009, following the global economic and financial crisis. Furthermore, there is a noticeable reduction in the presence of journalists in rural and small urban areas.”

More local newspapers

At the same time, the number of local newspapers, both in print and digital, has increased from 2001 to 2022. Andrea Mangani points out that this primarily reflects an increased supply, not increased demand, and he is highly skeptical of the ability of these newspapers to survive.

Mangani is primarily concerned with the journalistic quality as a consequence of this:

“The most important consequence of the significant reduction in the number of journalists relates to the quality of journalism, not the quantity. Problems arise when far fewer journalists try to cover as many stories as before, but now must do so in a multimedia format – in text, audio, and video, says Andrea Mangani with reference to the interviews he has conducted with journalists and editors.”

According to Mangani, the reasons for this severely pressured economic situation are a combination of a sharp decline in advertising revenue and strong competition among various media players for the remaining advertising revenues. When 90% of private media revenue relies on advertising, print newspaper sales are declining, and people are reluctant to pay for digital subscriptions, you have a recipe for major challenges.

Andrea Mangani describes a situation in Italy where the use of, and willingness to pay for, editorial media has always been low – perhaps lower than in other countries.

“Broadly speaking, the readership has always been very low in Italy. People bought a few newspapers in the past and buy even fewer newspapers today. But in general, the willingness to pay is very, very low. People don’t want to pay for news.”

Different offerings

The report describes significant variations in media offerings in different parts of Italy. Generally, there is considerable pluralism in editorial media with relevant content for the largest cities, while access in rural areas remains critically weak in many regions. 

The Italian report states that most cities in Italy have one or two dominant newspapers. This suggests that there is a relatively high degree of media concentration, the opposite of pluralism. In other parts of Europe, cities with two dominant and competing newspapers, along with a number of digital newcomers, would likely be characterized as quite well covered with editorial content. Of course, this depends entirely on the use of these media and the level of trust from their users.

In the introduction to the media situation in Italy, we noted that the main points are about reduced journalistic capacity and low trust. Andrea Mangani believes these challenges are more or less the same for both local and national media. He describes a situation in which low trust in the media effectively reduces the ‘value’ of a relatively high level of media pluralism in densely populated areas.

“In Italy, 70% of people believe that media content is biased in some way, in terms of ideologically biased, politically biased. And people believe that this depends on the politics. So, Italy is a very special case. It’s a special case in history.”

He further describes how there is a somewhat dark tradition among some of the country’s most powerful people, who take control of media to advance their own economic or political interests:

“Our public broadcasting system is called RAI, and RAI is controlled by the government in power. Every time that there is a change in the majority in the parliament, this also leads to changes in how RAI is managed. The sitting government deeply intervenes in what should be RAI’s independent editorial decisions. It appoints leaders in RAI who are considered supporters and interferes with the types of programs and topics RAI should put on the agenda.”

When Andrea Mangani describes Italy as a “very special case in history”, he highlights the phenomenon of the long-serving Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who, following a highly questionable tradition, controlled Italian public service media while also advancing his own interests through his private TV stations. It must be emphasized that Berlusconi formally relinquished all positions within Mediaset when he held official government roles. The Berlusconi family controls Italy’s three dominant private TV stations through the company Mediaset. Although Silvio Berlusconi has passed away, his family continues to run the company in his spirit.

It’s not only the largest media companies that struggle with a lack of editorial independence. The report also describes risks for local media – from both political and commercial forces. It emphasizes that the media’s complete dependence on advertising revenue heightens the risk of editorial influence from local advertisers.

Lack of support from young people

One of the major challenges facing the Italian editorial media – and media across the EU – is the lack of support from young people and cultural minorities, which impacts the media’s ability to positively influence society. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the media are as relevant and reliable as can be if they are not used by a large part of the population. This is also the main reason for Andrea Mangani’s pessimism:

“I used to ask students in my classes what their information sources are. Only one or two of 30-40 say that they have a subscription to an online media outlet.”

“I think we know far too little about the young people’s media habits and what kind of content they consume. Of course, we know that they use a lot of time on social networks, that’s obvious. But what they do consume, what they read, what they listen to, what they look at on social networks…I think we know too little about that,” says Associate Professor Andrea Mangani. 

In late May 2024, European Movement International (EMI), in cooperation with a group of media and journalist organizations, sent an open letter to Vera Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission, asking the EU to initiate an investigation into what they see as the Italian government’s attempt to gain full editorial control over the Public Service Media company RAI. As a basis for an investigation, they referred to the new European Media Freedom Act and Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU).

The initiators justify their request as follows:

“The independence of media has come under immense pressure in Italy.  Giorgia Meloni’s government has been increasingly exerting its power over RAI, Italy’s national broadcaster, by ousting managers and TV hosts from their posts and by censoring programmes that are critical of the government. Moreover, recently journalists and newspapers have been consistently attacked by members of the government, shutting down dissenting voices and hindering media independence.”

Greece

Greek media: Little criticism of power, and low trust in media

• Level of democracy: Ranked number 50 globally (Liberal democracy Index/ V-Dem)
• Level of media freedom: Ranked number 88 globally (RSF) 

Greece is a vulnerable country according to several of the parameters that are significant for this analysis. It is one of the countries with the largest decline on V-Dem Institute’s democracy index over the last five years, and it is the lowest ranking EU country on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index in 2024, placing 88th.

 Greece is also the EU country with the lowest trust in the media, and according to Reuters Digital News Report 2024, only 23% of Greeks trust the country’s media. 

Assistant Professor Lambrini Papadopoulou of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens attributes this to the fact that most traditional Greek media engage in minimal critical journalism against the government and the power institutions of society.

“Most of the media support the incumbent government, and this is a long tradition,” she explains.

Poor working conditions

The indicator with the highest risk assessment in Greece’s news desert study is “Safety of Local Journalists.” This high risk is due to a combination of poor employment and working conditions, along with widespread threats and strategic lawsuits (SLAPPs) targeting local journalists. 

The indicator “Market and Reach” also carries a high risk assessment, partly due to the significant economic weakening of Greek local and regional media, with several closures in recent years. Ten local TV stations have shut down in the past five years, and 13 radio stations disappeared in 2021. The number of local newspapers has also declined. This has happened despite the fact that Greece practices indirect media support, in the form of reduced taxes, and has offered direct support schemes in recent years, as indicated in the report:

“Regarding subsidies, the Greek state provides indirect subsidies for daily and weekly local and regional newspapers through reduced postal service rates. Print media (newspapers and magazines) enjoy a lower value-added tax (VAT) rate than standard goods.

For many years there have been no direct state subsidies given to the media. Direct subsidy schemes for local/regional media were first introduced with Law 4674/2020.”

On a positive note, the Greek reporting in the news desert study highlights that several local news services have been established online in recent years; however, there is no available data on this development.

Lambrini Papadopoulou discusses the emergence of new and independent news initiatives in response to a question about the most significant changes in the Greek media landscape over the past 15 years:

“Well, it’s funny because I think that everything changed and then nothing changed. Meaning that after the economic crisis, there was a significant collapse in the Greek media ecosystem. Some major and well-known media outlets had to shut down, and there was hope that the ecosystem could be rebuilt under better conditions. However, what we had before was reconstructed, and the same polarized media landscape was restored. The “new” owners were more or less identical to the “old” owners.”

“However, something positive did happen, and that was the emergence of independent, critical, and investigative media. They are not many, just a handful, but they have been behind some of the most important revelations in Greek history and build hope for better journalism in Greece. They are subjected to SLAPPs and threats, but they persevere.”

Back in history

Danai Maragoudaki is a journalist and works for Solomon, one of the challengers in the Greek media landscape that Lambrini Papadopoulou mentioned. She argues that it is necessary to go back in history to understand the development of Greek editorial media.

“When the dictatorship in Greece ended in 1974, two dominant parties emerged – a social democratic party and a right-wing party. These two parties dominated until 2011, when the economic crisis hit Greece with full force. During all these years, Greek editorial media were largely organized according to these two parties. Half supported one party, and the other half supported the other. During this period, a mutual dependency developed between the political parties, banks, media groups, and the state, which in Greece means the sitting government. The government allowed banks to lend money to media groups, and in return, the media supported the government.”

Maragoudaki argues that the media became economically dependent on the government and paid for this with their own independence. But this was not the only consequence. She explains that when the economic crisis hit Greece in full force in 2011, large media conglomerates had more debt than they could manage, leading to the collapse of many major traditional media companies.This, in turn, allowed Greek oligarchs to buy up the remnants of the old media companies.

Lack of editorial independence seems to be one of the most dominant problems for Greek editorial media, according to the report: 

“Similar to commercial influence on editorial content, local journalists believe that laws and self-regulation are ineffective in countering political influence. Research into the Greek media system has forcefully demonstrated the existence of political interference in news media, attributable to the close ties that have developed between established private media owners and political elites. Moreover, the absence of effective self-regulatory safeguards results in journalists being pressured by political and commercial influences.”

Lambrini Papadopoulou says that Public Service Media in Greece also fail to contribute positively as independent news providers:

“Well, the situation is quite dire there as well, because there’s also a debate whether it is actually public or state, meaning that it’s not independent. On the contrary, it is criticized as functioning merely as a vehicle for reproducing the government’s agenda, priorities, politics, etc. So it’s not independent. And the same can be said for the country’s news agency,” she says.