The problems and main challenges facing local journalism served as the pretext for the meeting commemorating the 11th anniversary of the print edition of Diário da Lagoa.


Thinking, questioning, and talking about local journalism was one of the themes of the “II Encontro Dos Açores para o Mundo” (2nd Meeting of the Azores for the World), which marked the 11th anniversary of the print edition of Diário da Lagoa (DL). The event was held at the OVGA – Azores Volcanological and Geothermal Observatory on October 4 and was attended by more than three dozen people. The guests were Catarina Rodrigues, professor and researcher in Communication Sciences at the University of the Azores; Eduardo Marques, professor and researcher in Social Work at the University of the Azores; Roberto Medeiros, DL columnist; and Clife Botelho, DL director, in a conversation moderated by journalist and writer Ígor Lopes.

“This newspaper is a public service and, as a public service, it is working for the common good, for education, for informed citizenship, and it is working to increase literacy. How much does it cost to have an uninformed population, a population that does not vote, that does not participate, a population with low levels of literacy?” asked Eduardo Marques. The professor believes that “there should be a different perspective on the part of politicians and public policies regarding the need for this citizen-based journalism, which is here to promote the common good, to educate, to help people understand the world.”
The director of DL, Clife Botelho, in addition to agreeing that “more support from the regional government is needed” for the region’s media outlets, says that “there is a very close connection that people only find in newspapers of this type. The community brings these newspapers to life.”
Teacher and researcher Catarina Rodrigues warned of the danger of news deserts: “My colleagues, through a study, found that half of the country’s municipalities were in the process of being considered news deserts. In other words, it is a very significant, worrying number, with no media to represent them, particularly in terms of scrutiny, with relevant information and proximity to communities. This deserted space ends up being occupied by other forms of communication on social media, which do not comply at all with the ethical and deontological standards of journalism that are fundamental from the point of view of the profession and of approaching the community and in the context of active citizenship.”

DL’s longest-serving columnist, Roberto Medeiros, said that when he started writing for Diário da Lagoa, my first column was about the Voice of the Past, in which I recounted history. No one can predict the future without studying the past. After reading all 13 newspapers that Lagoa has ever had [DL is the fourteenth], I began to bring to the pages of Diário da Lagoa what I had read that was important.”
This session, commemorating the 11th anniversary of the DL, was also marked by tributes to the newspaper’s founder, Norberto Luís, who, for personal and family reasons, was unable to attend, and to the Esperança printing house, where the DL was first printed. Roberto Medeiros was also honored with a compilation of all his chronicles in A3 format, which were presented to the author.
The session also inaugurated the DL exhibition featuring the newspaper’s main front pages from the last 11 years, which will travel to various institutions in the municipality and then to the Azorean diaspora in the United States of America.

Sara Sousa Oliveira, Executive Director

In Diário da Lagoa- Clife Botelho, diretor

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.