Undesert the news in Lisbon Metropolitan Area

The project's main goal is to address the lack of information coming from within these communities and collaborate with their members to share untold stories, empowering them in the process. This involves guiding them through the complexities of the news media landscape and helping their stories reach a wider audience.

What stories young adults living in the peripheral areas of Lisbon would tell if they had the power to do so in the mainstream media? This project aims exactly at that. Working with youngsters to share  stories that represent a diverse range of experiences and perspectives that are often overlooked. Mensagem will work with three communities in the Lisbon metropolitan area, collaboratively developing innovative storytelling formats while adhering to journalistic standards. The objective is to empower young individuals living in news deserts and those who tend to avoid the news. By helping them constructively build their own narratives, the project seeks to bridge the gap and amplify their voices. Ultimately, "Mensagem" aims to foster understanding, empathy, and positive change within society.

Target group

The main target audience of our media news desert project is the young readers from underreported communities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. For this pilot, we have selected three neighborhoods: Algueirão/Mem Martins (Sintra), Casal da Mira (Amadora), and Charneca da Caparica (Almada). These neighborhoods have a significant representation of young people, social minorities, and firstgeneration Portuguese residents.

Goals of the project

By working journalistically with three communities in peripherical Lisbon we hope to help put their issues and stories on the media agenda. We also hope to understand and make people understand how to start to reduce inequality and raise the awareness about these communities in the rest of the society – and what does that mean to both sides (the media and the communities).

Implemented activities 

Pop-up newsrooms in all the areas, assessment of readership in those areas, a plan of training. 

Impact addressing news deserts

Can you change a city in just six months? Maybe not entirely, but you can certainly gain a deeper understanding of it through a journalism project, even a pilot initiative like Un'Desert the News. It offers a chance to grasp what journalism and the media establishment are currently overlooking.

Beyond the typical media coverage lies an undiscovered city. We unearthed a small portion of it, yet there are countless more narratives waiting to be told and further endeavors demanding our attention. Far removed from positioning ourselves as the protagonists of this journey, we stand merely as humble witnesses to the imperative for change.

This gap in coverage means journalism is failing to fulfill one of its core missions. Additionally, it highlights an underserved audience, a troubling reality for a field already facing significant challenges - even in its business.

Can change be entrusted solely to the free market to address? Hardly. While it's true that not every situation is identical, the issue of underserved communities often correlates with lower purchasing power and exclusion from the elite groups that mainstream media typically target. Perhaps therein lies the crux of the matter. And that is why we feel compelled to advocate for additional support and funding for public service journalism.

As Catarina Reis - the leader of this project - puts it:

“This project proves community journalism doesn't have to be a utopia and, quite the opposite, it should be a tool for journalists - as much as plurality and fact-checking are. Working together has undeniable positive consequences for the final quality of the story, by intersecting knowledge and perspectives, but also for those who have started to look at territories with a journalist's curiosity - not just the place where they sleep at the end of the day."