News Deserts

News deserts is a term used in both scholarly publications and the popular press to describe geographic regions or communities that lack access to critical information on quality-of-life issues, such as education, governance, politics, and the environment. The University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media defines a news desert as a “community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level” (U.S. News Deserts, n.d.). Other researchers define news deserts as geographic communities that lack a local news outlet, or a group of people sharing similar characteristics and backgrounds, such as immigrant communities, that lack adequate coverage by mainstream media.

[Page 1114]Much scholarly research on news deserts has ...