Portugal news – News play a central role in Portugal’s developing socio-economic context, where it evolved from opinion press read by intellectuals, to newspaper journalism read by the general public, to the online media space shared by small specialized media and AI generated articles that rank higher on a Google search. What is the role of Google Search on the online news media space?
The history of the Portuguese news media started with 19th century journalism that was marked by the fall of Napoleon in 1814, which was the start of the “opinion press” featuring the era’s intellectuals, such as Eça de Queiroz and Ramalho Ortigão, who had an impact on shaping public opinion on the evolving socio-economic context, according to Portugal’s News Museum.
The importance of the press in Portugal was noted in an article written in 1841 in the Revista Universal Lisbonense: “The press girds the world. In the past, the sword reigned – today, the pen rules. The old civilization was in wars, the new one is in the press.”
Portugal’s first press freedom law was enacted on July 12, 1821, while the publication of the Liberal Constitution of 1822 guaranteed the right to freedom of expression and of the press. However, press censorship was still a political tool and, in 1840, a law was published that restricted the exercise of freedom of the press, followed by the persecution of newspapers and journalists. According to former historian Joel Serrão, «The press of the time was firstly political, secondly literary and only incidentally newsworthy of the events of daily life».
The advent of free journalism in Portugal was linked to the industrial transformation of the press. Eça de Queiroz, known for designing a journalism of the future, wrote in the first edition of the newspaper Distrito de Évora, on January 6, 1867, an article about what he understood Journalism in Portugal should be:
«Journalism in its just and true attitude would be the permanent intervention of the country in its own political, moral, religious, literary and industrial life. It is the great duty of journalism to make the state of public affairs known, to teach the people their rights and guarantees of their security, to be attentive to the attitudes taken towards foreign policy.»
The emergence of News Journalism in Portugal started with the publication of Diário de Notícias in 1864, a cheap daily newspaper with news reports that were aimed at the general public through its clear and concise reporting, as well as its neutral and independent stance. It was a newspaper that was different from the other Portuguese newspapers of the time, in terms of news content and simple style.
In the 20th century, the first Portuguese news agency emerged, and newspaper journalism flourished with both national and local newspapers being published and providing the general public with opinions on the political, moral, religious, literary and industrial life of the generation. Portugal's first news agency, Agência Noticiosa Lusitânia, was created in 1944.
On December 21, 2024, one of Portugal’s first daily newspapers that is still published today, Diário de Notícias, that started publishing in 1864, announced that it would no longer have a print edition on weekends from January 1st, 2025. This change in Portugal’s traditional news media landscape is to meet new trends in information consumption, at a time when the overwhelming majority of the newspaper's customers read online.
According to Reuters, AI is central to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s mission to explore the future of journalism worldwide. Meanwhile, new tech media platforms have completely replaced original reporting with news produced by generative AI. AI generates news articles on news platforms and, according to McAffee, the number of AI-powered fake news sites has now surpassed the number of real local newspaper sites in the U.S. AI tools have made creating entire fake news sites quicker and easier than before, taking one person minutes to create what once took days for dozens and dozens of people. Researchers say humanity reached this threshold in June 2024, a sad milestone by their reckoning, since traditional, trusted sources of local news shut down in most countries to be replaced by AI news platforms.
AI-generated articles that take mere seconds to produce are being prioritized by Google over meticulously crafted pieces that require hours or even days to write. Google’s Search guidance about AI-generated content states that such articles will rank high as long as they are high-quality.
Opinion pieces and specialized articles written by journalists and read by intellectuals are replaced by AI tech news platforms, and the difference between real news and fake news has just become blurred, signaling a significant change in Portugal’s developing socio-economic context and on the impact of individual lives.
Since 1841, the press has been girding the world. In the past, the sword reigned – today, AI rules. While journalism in its just and true attitude would be the permanent intervention of the country’s intellectuals in its own political, moral, religious, literary and industrial life, the advent of AI is signifying the end of humanity’s moral and intellectual life that taught the people their rights and that gave guarantees for their security, while being attentive to national and foreign policies.
This raises the fundamental question: Should the online media space shared by small, specialized media and AI generated platforms, rank AI platforms higher on a Google search and what would be the implications for humanity’s future?
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