Depopulation has been on the public agenda for a little over a decade. In addition to civic organisations, academic work and public policies, the media have made a decisive contribution to making this issue truly "fashionable". In this sense, the media can be a vehicle for expressing some of the handicaps suffered by rural municipalities, such as, among others, the scarcity or remoteness of services (private and public); the difficulties of accessibility; the sometimes poor state of infrastructures; the insufficiency of public facilities, or the difficulties of access to them; access to housing in conditions; or the traditional difficulty of access to communication technologies (which, fortunately, is beginning to be a cliché in many areas). The analysis of depopulation from the media is, therefore, a really interesting perspective from which to study the problem.  This study, based on the Geography of Communication from a scientific point of view, studies the different dimensions of depopulation through the Valencian regional press (specifically, with the newspapers El Periódico Mediterráneo and Las Provincias). To do this, it has been necessary to build a news database, using the virtual newspaper library of the University of Valencia, My News. We have worked with the period from 1996 to February 2024. That is to say, since there were already some public statements in Spain about the need to address a situation that was negatively affecting many inland rural areas, the net loss of population. In any case, during this period, as will be seen in these pages, there have been various stages, at least three of which are worth highlighting. The first was the arrival of immigrants throughout the country, from which rural areas benefited. This occurred in the early 2000s. This immigration to many rural areas put to one side the problems that some voices, especially those from rural areas, had begun to highlight. The outbreak and expansion of what is known as the Great Recession, the financial and economic crisis that manifested itself above all in 2008 (although with some manifestations already in 2007) meant the almost abrupt closure for many rural areas of the arrival of immigrants, and the beginning of a phase of returns, which was not equally intense in all areas, but which, globally, was very evident. Indeed, during this stage, some rural areas resisted better from a demographic point of view, and their losses were comparatively smaller, but in others, these were rapid and intense. This period is also known in Spanish literature as the second wave of depopulation in Spain (in relation to the first, which was the great rural exodus of the 1960s and 1970s).   Finally, the third stage, which, at a global level, we would still be in ( with minor sub-phases), begins with the beginning of the recovery from the crisis. This is usually fixed, from a technical point of view, in 2013, but the broad effects on the economic system were not evident until 2014-2015. This phase would last, in terms of depopulation, until the present day, and the main feature is that the economic recovery, as highlighted by many indicators for the country as a whole (and equally evident improvements in rural areas), has not been accompanied by demographic recovery in rural areas. However, it should be stressed that, in this context of demographic sluggishness, not all rural areas have experienced depopulation processes in the same way. To these three major phases in the demographic dynamics in rural areas must be added the appearance or intensification of other phenomena and problems. Ageing is one of them, which makes the demographic structures in many rural areas seem difficult to recover (at least in the short or medium term), due to the lack of births, to which must be added the tremendously low fertility levels that characterise our country. Ageing is mitigated in those areas where the influx of immigrants was greater, and where there were fewer losses during the crisis (either through the return of immigrants or their displacement to urban areas, or simply through emigration of the local population, especially young people). But there are many rural areas where this second wave has entailed very significant losses in net demographic numbers (both of immigrants and of the local population), with the result that ageing has intensified significantly. Another particularly important phenomenon, which interferes with the previous one, is the floating population. In fact, it is the third component of what is known as the "Demographic Challenge" (together with depopulation and ageing, which should not therefore be identified solely with the first). Many inland rural areas are affected, not always positively, by the enormous growth of the floating population during the summer or holiday periods, with the consequent increase in pressure on facilities that are not at all sized for such significant growth. This is the reason for the significant inadequacies and imbalances in many services. This floating population, although it may represent a certain revulsive for some services, such as private commercial services, also stimulates consumption habits that do not favour local economies, such as trips to medium-sized service centres. All of this is facilitated by the high mobility derived from the private vehicle, and even from a certain improvement in road infrastructures. Beyond the effects of the floating population on local economies during holiday periods, it is also important to highlight that we are facing changes in residential models. Thus, the non-permanent residence model has advanced in many rural areas, as opposed to the classic model of permanent residence. In other words, many rural dwellings that have traditionally constituted permanent residences, without necessarily or solely becoming holiday residences, have become residences for shorter periods, or at least can no longer be considered permanent residences. This is typically the case of elderly residents, who spend time with relatives in more or less nearby urban centres, but who also spend time in their traditional first rural residence. For example, data from the medical cards, or from the care of “temporarily relocated residents”, show this kind of temporary "migration" (in many cases the elderly prefer to register in urban centres with their relatives, or nearby, because in this way they have as a reference hospital centres which they consider to be closer and which offer better services). This practice means that, in rural areas, and for very long periods of time, there is a floating population (who were previously the first residents), which puts pressure on, for example, the rural health system, without it having the appropriate resources to provide adequate care. In short, changes in residential patterns in rural areas, or in consumption habits, are some of the many issues that require special attention, not only from academics, but also from public administrations in order to design public policies that are more in line with these new realities.  Returning to the present study, we are focusing on depopulation processes, but including all the other phenomena included in the concept of demographic challenge. However, we use the term "depopulation" because it is a much more widespread concept and, in this case, much more present in the media, as opposed to "demographic challenge" which, although conceptually broader, is more restrictive in its public presence. As noted, the research is based on the presence of these and other associated concepts in the media. A double analysis has been carried out on the basis of a database with news items from the aforementioned period (1996 - 2024). Firstly, quantitative, considering the presence (or frequency) of journalistic pieces (news) on a total of 10 topics, including the environment, public policies, institutional actors, tourism, housing, services or specific groups of people (immigrants, young people, women, the elderly, etc.), among others.  In other words, we have tried to collect not only news on strictly depopulation processes, ageing, etc., but also on all those other topics with which depopulation (in a broad sense, i.e. demographic challenge) appears to be related. In addition to the themes, this first analysis also breaks down the period of time studied into a total of five phases (which are related to the social and economic context of the country, further detailing the three main phases mentioned above).  Secondly, a qualitative analysis has been carried out, with the aim of detecting the interrelationships between the themes, but also to see what are the defining elements of the narratives and discourses that derive from the different news items, and how the different themes are embedded in those narratives. From a technical point of view, this was done using the AntConc textual analysis software (Anthony, 2005). This study will present the results obtained from these analyses, and we will apply a more reflective and interpretative approach to them in the discussion section. These sections show the importance of the media in putting depopulation (demographic challenge) on the public agenda, due to the importance that the issue has received, especially from 2015-2016 to the present (although the attention was very important during and in the early post-pandemic period, given that some analysts thought they saw a certain rural renaissance, or a return to the countryside, which the data are showing us that it practically no longer exists). From our point of view, and this is the hypothesis that we maintain, the element that has stimulated the greatest attention to depopulation, both in the media and in public administrations, is not only the phenomenon itself, the important demographic losses during the second wave of depopulation. Of fundamental importance, and probably the "trigger" element that gave rise to all the subsequent attention, is the rise of civic and social movements, which already began to be reflected in literature and, it is true, some previous documentaries (suffice it to mention the excellent work done by José Antonio Labordeta with his series "Un país en la mochila", for Televisión Española, broadcast between 1995 and 2000), which highlight the problems suffered by the municipalities in rural areas. The book concludes with some reflections on the confirmation of the research hypotheses put forward, as well as the limitations presented by the present research and several considerations to be considered in order to carry out similar research in the future.