News Desert in the Interior of São Paulo: Mapping the presence of media outlets in the Intermediate Geographic Region of Araraquara

This article aims to investigate the existence and distribution of print, online, radio and television media in the twenty-six cities that make up the Intermediate Geographic Region of Araraquara, located in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The research, methodologically in the light of Gil (2008) and Marconi and Lakatos (2003), seeks to verify whether the territory has active and continuous local journalistic production, or if it falls into the category of Desert of News Curvello (2016), Martins (2022) and Miranda (2021). Based on this diagnosis, it seeks to understand to what extent the local population has guaranteed – or limited – access to information of public interest, which can compromise transparency, the oversight of institutions and effective citizen participation.