Information about Covid-19 in news deserts: the importance of journalism in the interior of Pará

Abstract

In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the access to quality information has become a fundamental condition to maintain basic health conditions. In this article we discuss the importance of Journalism in the so-called news desert. We start from the reality of the city of Rondon do Pará, southeast of Pará, Brazil, to analyze how the scarcity of journalistic information impacts the knowledge of the local situation, especially during the coronavirus outbreak. We take the assumption that Journalism, established on specific principles and criteria, tends to produce more qualified information than that disseminated in informal digital environments. Thus, our hypothesis is that in places with different journalistic media, there is more space to encourage citizenship, because communities can count on good subsidies to take decisions. Although we use quantitative data, our methodology is highly qualitative, based on semi-structured interviews with inhabitants of Rondon do Pará, and on participant observation, supported by the experience of our production routine at the Portal Rondon Notícias. Well-founded on concepts such as community and regional journalism, misinformation and communication for social change, we consider the relevance of Journalism in outskirts societies as a matter of citizenship and development. Our analysis indicates, among other issues, that in communities with little tradition of local media, dwellers are unable to distinguish journalistic information from other types, bringing down the chances of being well-informed and, ultimately, achieving their status as citizens. Besides to not understand the importance of local information, people are also not available as sources of information, which makes difficult the exercise of journalism in these spaces