Jornalismo e desertos de notícias: análise da representação de Bom Jardim - RJ pelo telejornalismo regional

Abstract

In 2025, according to the Knight Center, the new deserts in Brazil decreased 7,7% compared to 2021. Despite this decline, the numbers remain high: Atlas da Notícia identified 2504 deserts and 1808 nearly-deserts in Brazil in 2025. This scenario resulted in the dependence of small cities in the journalistic coverage provided by regional vehicles, which embrace cities nearby the head office. But is regional journalism capable of embracing, alone, the news of different cities at the same time? What narratives does a regional communication vehicle build about a city? This undergraduate thesis aims to understand the narratives created about the city of Bom Jardim, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, by a regional television newscast: RJ InterTV; analyzing the audiovisual news transmitted in a period of thirteen months and the representation of the city constructed through them, based on Hall’s (2016) concept of representation and the methodology of Audiovisual Materiality Analysis proposed by Coutinho (2016). The analysis indicated a low number of reports about the city and a predominance of content considered negative, focusing on crimes, accidents and stories that may contribute to a negative image of the city.