by Luis Carlos Rios Castro
The media ecosystem is governed by large media outlets that focus on national and international headlines. The media does not usually tell people what to think, but it does tell them what to think about, as McCombs and Shaw argued in their agenda-setting theory. And in this exercise of selection, everyday life, neighborhood issues, and local issues are often relegated to the background. Community media play an essential role, and in Madrid there are local newspapers that have been telling stories about identity, community, and collective memory for decades. Vallecas Va and Tetuán 30 Días are two examples of this type of neighborhood journalism. It deals with real problems, long-time residents, and everyday streets. These are the community media that sustain the narrative of everyday life.
The life that does not make it onto the national agenda
Jesús Arguedas, owner of Vallecas Va, sums it up clearly: “We report on what happens in people’s daily lives, in the life of the neighborhoods. None of that stuff makes it into the mainstream media. And those stories are very real, very close to home, very much about ordinary people, with whom most of us identify.” In other words, Arguedas points to something essential in the construction of the journalistic narrative. It is about emotional and social identification with the content. Denis McQuail, in his model of uses and gratifications, emphasizes that people turn to the media not only for information. They also do so out of a sense of belonging, to reinforce their identity and build community. In this sense, community media such as Vallecas Va or Tetuán 30 Días do not just inform. They also offer a social mirror in which residents recognize themselves, something that is less likely when reading a mainstream media outlet with an international reach.
David Álvarez, editor-in-chief of Tetuán 30 Días, explains something very similar: “At least 90% of the information that appears in our newspaper deals exclusively with issues related to Tetuán. The mainstream media don’t cover district news in sufficient depth. However, this is very valuable information for people who live nearby and suffer from these problems, or who can enjoy these cultural events or benefit from these reform projects.”
How to choose what to report
In both cases, the selection of topics is based on a clear premise: to report on what is of value to the people who live in these neighborhoods. These media outlets do not claim to know from above what matters to citizens. On the contrary, the agenda is set by a mechanism of constant listening that allows them to identify local information needs. It is a permeable process, in constant dialogue with its social environment, which does not always exist in large newsrooms. There, topics are usually defined by political agendas, national circumstances, or media trends.
For Vallecas Va, the decision is based on “what we consider to be the most important and valuable for people at any given time. We are very committed to anything that can benefit residents in any way, always positive things,” says Arguedas. At Tetuán 30 Días, experience counts. “We’ve been in the district for 31 years, so we have multiple sources. Neighborhood associations, anonymous residents, and others who already know the publication usually contact us when they want to tell us something. The district’s Municipal Council is also an obvious and recurring source. Social media also oftoften gives us clues about what’s going on in the neighborhood, but the best thing is to go out on the street and see what’s happening,” explains Álvarez.
At the local level, too, issues are prioritized, approaches are prioritized, and decisions are made about what to report and what not to report. What is interesting here is that this prioritization is based on other criteria: the impact on the daily lives of residents, the social usefulness of the information, or the community relevance of a story. In this sense, media outlets such as Vallecas Va and Tetuán 30 Días not only inform, but also shape the collective narrative of the neighborhood.
Independence and community commitment
Both agree that they have never felt significant pressure to modify their content. Not from institutions, companies, or political actors. “At no time,” says Jesús Arguedas, while David Álvarez adds: “Nothing that we couldn’t consider part of the job, and certainly nothing important or worth mentioning.”
This independence translates into freedom to address issues that the mainstream media ignore. Stories such as the power cut in Cañada Real, which Vallecas Va covered for weeks, producing a four-page special featuring testimonies from affected residents. “We tried to gather feelings from different points of view and mainly from residents living in sector 6 of Cañada, the most affected area,” recalls Arguedas.
Tetuán 30 Días emphasizes historical reports about the neighborhood. “Especially if they include old photographs, they tend to have the greatest impact,” Álvarez points out. He also proudly recalls interviewing a very young Pedro Sánchez when he founded the Socialist Youth of Tetuán, and publishing sculpture routes that later served as a basis for institutions to promote cultural activities.
Information from below
What is happening with these community media outlets is a living example of how an alternative media agenda is constructed. Faced with a national and international landscape that prioritizes the spectacular, the urgent, or the politically central, these newspapers weave together a different kind of information that is more local, practical, and community-based. Rather than opposing the national press, they complement it, covering areas that, due to their scale or specificity, are left out of the big headlines.
The two local newspapers act as small resistance newsrooms. In this sense, they maintain an informative approach based on neighborhood, social utility, and direct contact with sources. They are projects where there is no disconnect between sender and receiver: journalists are neighbors, readers are protagonists, and stories emerge on the street corner, in the cultural center, or at a neighborhood association meeting.
In times of crisis of trust in the media and citizen disaffection, the local press becomes a model of trust and legitimacy. It strengthens the social and democratic fabric, not only by informing, but also by building community. And, although often underestimated, it is essential to understanding how pluralistic and participatory information is constructed.
Community media, counterweight and complement
Both newspapers demonstrate that there is a neighborhood media agenda that, although less visible, plays a key role in the democratic articulation of the city. They are not just mouthpieces for small news items, but spaces for identity building and social cohesion. Their active listening to society enables them to highlight demands, narratives, and memories that would otherwise remain marginalized.
In an increasingly centralized information ecosystem, these newspapers act as a counterweight and complement. Community media ensure that plurality of information is not limited to the macro level and that neighborhood stories, local voices, and everyday issues find a space. Committing to their survival is not only a matter of diversity of information, but also of democratic quality. Because if these stories are not told, no one else will.
This article, Community media: the stories that big newspapers don’t tell , was originally published in the European Journalism Observatory on the 23 April 2025.