Agencia Mural: Community Building for Impact
Covering a news desert during an election
Agência Mural is a Brazilian non-profit local news organization that covers exclusively the low-income, underserved, and underprivileged communities of the 39 cities that make up the metropolitan area of Greater São Paulo through a network of local correspondents who live or grew up in these neighborhoods. Agência Mural’s mission is to reduce the gaps in information from and to these communities and dismantle stereotypes about these places.
- Brazil
- Agência Mural
- 2024
- Brazil
- Agência Mural
- 2024
MAIN REVENUE MODEL
> The Story
Lack of Local Journalism Hinders Access to Civic Rights in Pirapora do Bom Jesus during Municipal Elections
Pirapora is one of 12 towns in the region classified as a “news desert,” meaning it lacks independent local journalism organizations and coverage. Living there for a week, a team of journalists from Agência Mural explored how residents accessed information about candidates during the 2024 municipal elections, and how the absence of dedicated news coverage influenced the political campaign.
Through multiformat stories, they highlighted how the lack of local media created an information vacuum, making it significantly harder for residents to stay informed about the elections and their civic rights, to say the least.
After completing the project, the team returned to a local school to present a video documentary to the community with the interviews and images they captured during their investigative phase. This initiative helped raise awareness about trust and the importance of local journalism to help them access vital and political information.
Additionally, Mural printed out a thousand folders –a summary of the final published investigation– to distribute to the audience. The printed folders were also placed at key locations throughout the town to extend the story’s reach.
Impact Summary:
External Individual Impact
The reporting sparked meaningful discussions about civic rights and the importance of participating in the democratic process among the community who responded positively to Mural’s outreach initiatives, they expressed feeling valued and more aware of the importance of reliable news sources. On Instagram alone, the content reached over 130,000 people and garnered more than 2,000 engagements. On the newsroom website, it reached 10,000 page views. The story was shared by major media outlets in the country. Some members of the community expressed gratitude to Agência Mural’s commitment to their community and said that it made them shift their attitude from skepticism to trust in journalism.
External Network impact
A partnership with Folha de S.Paulo, the largest newspaper in Brazil by circulation, led to a shorter version being published both online and in print on the same day. Global Voices collaborated to extend its reach to an international audience, translating and publishing the content on their website into Spanish, English, Arabic, Serbian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and Russian. Agência Mural was invited to talk about the story in a series of journalism events in Brazil and Argentina.
Internal Institutional impact
Agência Mural intends to extend the project beyond the elections coverage. The organization is looking for partnerships to expand their network and including local correspondents from the 12 news deserts that still exist within the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo to ensure ongoing coverage and consistently publish stories about these underreported areas.
Internal Individual impact
RFW corps members Jacqueline da Silva and Artur Ferreira gained valuable field experience and deepened their bonds with the local community. Locals now recognize them and tip them off to other stories. When the team returned to the Pirapora do Bom
Takeaway
Local journalism is not only about investigating local issues up close, but also about building trust and giving back to the community. By returning to share the results of their work, journalists strengthen their connection with residents and help deepen public understanding of journalism’s role in everyday life. This kind of exchange should be ongoing, making the newsroom an active, integral part of the community.
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