COM 224T: mass media & societY
Travel Course to Cuba
To describe my time in Cuba is like talking about El Salvador or any other Latin American Countries, but with its own uniqueness. Growing up in the United States, I was taught that Cuba, like any other communist country, was bad and everyone there was living miserably. Nevertheless, I was meet with an awakening surprise when I arrived to Cuba. To begin my critical analysis, I will descripe the media outlets that we visited in Cuba and in Tampa; This will allow for an in-depth analysis on how democracy (or lack of) effects mass media. Founded after the Cuban Revolution, Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) is the official government-run radio station. In the 1960’s, of RHC broadcast Radio Free Dixie aimed at African-Americans struggling against segregation and Jim Crow in the southern United States. Currently, RHC broadcasts in nine languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Quechua, Guarani, Creole and Esperanto, 24 hours a day. Most of the English broadcasts feature critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy. We toured the facility and considered how radio is still used to try and influence distant populations.
Trabajadores is a Cuban newspaper founded in June 1970 by Osvaldo de Melo and Sara del Carmen Zaldívar which is the organ of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC). It is published in Spanish, with an on-line English edition. It was created to inform and guide workers and people in general about union life and other issues of universal interest. Its pages addressed issues related to the labor movement, sugar harvest work, internal life of unions, practice of proletarian internationalism and class solidarity. In them, for many years’ workers found guidance on labor legislation of the country, and help about what to do to fix problems and worries related to the workplace. In 1978 the frequency increased to three a week and 2 December 1980 became daily. In 1997, Trabajadores created its own website. Founded in 2004, Fuego Enterprises, Inc. is a diversified holdings company focused on business opportunities in Cuba and the United States with operations in Media and Entertainment, Telecommunications, Travel, Real Estate and other industries. Fuego Enterprises also publishes two magazines: OnCubaand ART OnCuba, the first Cuba-focused monthly and quarterly bilingual magazine publication with national distribution in the U.S. Both magazines are published in hard copies and electronic formats and is distributed in select Barnes & Noble stores throughout the United States. OnCuba aims at being a communication bridge between Cuba and the United States, addressing Cuban culture, sports and everyday life with a human approach. El Paquete is a one terabyte collection of digital material distributed since around 2008[1] on the underground market in Cuba as a substitute for broadband Internet. In 2015 it was the primary source of entertainment for millions of Cubans. The most popular content is TV series, soap operas, music and the illegal classifieds but it also contains films, video clips, Spanish language news websites, computer technology websites, instructional videos and advertisements for local Cuban businesses. Most buyers request only certain parts of the Package which may sell for as little as $1 US. In May 2016 it was still unknown who compiled the material or from where it was obtained. Some have theorized that the lack of pornographic material and lack of anti-government views in the package may indicate the Cuban government is involved in its production. In the U.S.A. we visited Telemundo, Telemundo, a division of NBC Universal Hispanic Enterprises and Content, is a world-class media company, leading the industry in the production and distribution of high-quality Spanish-language content across its multiplatform portfolio to U.S. Hispanics and audiences around the world. Telemundo's multiple platforms include the Telemundo Network, a Spanish-language television network featuring original productions, theatrical motion pictures, news and first-class sports events, reaching U.S. Hispanic viewers in 210 markets through its 17 owned stations, broadcast and MVPD affiliates; Telemundo Digital Media, which distributes Telemundo's original content across digital and emerging platforms including mobile devices; an owned and operated full power station in Puerto Rico that reaches 99% of all TV households in that DMA; and Telemundo Internacional, the international distribution arm which has positioned Telemundo as the second largest provider of Spanish-language content worldwide by syndicating content to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages. We also visited La Gaceta whose publishing founder is Victoriano Manteiga. He came to this country from Cuba in 1913 to accept a job in the Morgan Cigar Factory as a reader. It was natural for Manteiga to expand his audience by founding La Gaceta as an afternoon Spanish-language daily newspaper in 1922. Since then, subscribers have depended on La Gaceta to consistently bring them unique views of local people and politics as well as world events. La Gaceta, now a tri-lingual weekly newspaper, frequently scoops the larger dailies and broadcast media and keeps readers combing its pages for surprising tidbits. Regular columns written by skilled journalists, in-depth interviews with local notables, coverage of Latin social events, news of the local community, exclusive sports columns, local historical photos and articles, business news and community calendars round out what many consider Tampa’s best weekly newspaper. To compare the mass media of Cuba with the mass media of the United States, I have to analyze the social patterns in each media platform. The focus will be on freedom to express without any type of censorship, to see if content is created by certain influences like consumerism. The Cuban media are tightly controlled by the Cuban government led by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in the past five decades. The PCC strictly censors news, information and commentary, and restricts dissemination of foreign publications to tourist hotels. Journalists must operate within the confines of laws against anti-government propaganda and the insulting of officials, which carry penalties of up to three years in prison. Private ownership of broadcast media is prohibited, and the government owns all mainstream media outlets. Media of the United States consist of several different types of media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. The U.S. also has a strong music industry. Many of the media are controlled by large for-profit corporations who reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material. American media conglomerates tend to be leading global players, generating large revenues as well as large opposition in many parts of the world. With the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, further deregulation and convergence are under way, leading to mega-mergers, further concentration of media ownership, and the emergence of multinational media conglomerates. These mergers enable tighter control of information. Currently, five corporations control roughly 90% of the media. Critics allege that localism, local news and other content at the community level, media spending and coverage of news, and diversity of ownership and views have suffered as a result of these processes of media concentration (Chapter 14). Most of the Cuban media outlets we visited had clear government censorship. Radio Habana was one of the more pro-communist/ pro-government media platforms. In our visit the tour “guide” tried to speak to us about Chavez and how wonderful he was. We then asked about the types of news they can report and he told us that they can report anything; however, our director told us that is was false. Another form that they showed the pro-communist idea was when I asked about the situation in Venezuela. The man who worked there told me that nothing was going on in Venezuela and it was doing good. In addition to Radio Habana, we visited the ICAIC’s Animation Studios where they create animations for the kids. We were shown around the studio and shown short films made by them. Most of the films were old and outdated; however, for them it was their best work. They did not speak about political issues or anything against the revolution; nevertheless, they recognized the competition between U.S. kid’s animations, which aren’t allowed in Cuba. During our time in Cuba we also visited the newspaper Trabajadores. This newspaper was less censored but there was still a sense of censorship and people trying to push the communist agenda. Throughout the whole tour there was a photographer taking pictures of us. These outlets were the mass media sources that were more controlled by the government; however, there were media sources like El Paquete and the magazine OnCuba, that had less governmental censorship and more freedom of expression. El Paquete is supposedly without any censorship but there is an unspoken rule about not having pornography or any radical political shows. We meet a man who delivered this and he showed us the different files on the Paquete. It included some commercials but it was for local businesses, so El Paquete is essentially free of major commercialization. The magazine had to be more careful with their content because they had to appease to their audience in Miami and avoid the super controversial topics of Cuba, so they can keep their magazine. The United States mass media sources we visited were completely different from the government media outlets but similar to the OnCuba. A system where the content is dependent on the investors and keeping the audience. We visited La Gacete where the owner told us about the effect the Communist scare era had on the newspaper. They had to stop writing about Cuba because if they didn’t they would be labeled communist. In Telemundo we can see the driving force of commercialism with various posters on the walls and the major advertising branch they had. Both of these outlets are essentially free to express themselves in any way but they always need to be cautious to anger their funds or audience. All of the media outlets, whether that be in Cuba or in the United States, have some form of limitation on the information being transmitted to the people. It is either hindered by government interest or by business interest. This creates bias and limits the truth; it limits the freedom of expression that both countries initially valued. In Cuba, the revolution stood for the people and their freedom but now it is stalled by the very fear that the internet (limitless information) will danger the ideas of the revolution have changed the revolution itself. In the United States, based off chapter 16, “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Jefferson supported the notion of a free press and free speech. The media today is not a source of democracy but as a weapon for consumerism. At their worst, the media can distract or misinform us with falsehoods and errors. But at their Jeffersonian best, the media can shed light on the issues, tell meaningful stories, and foster the discussions that can help a citizens’ democracy flourish (Chapter 16). As for Cuba, the limitation of information puts in danger the intellectual growth of their people and of their country. To be fully media literate, we must actively work to create a media world that helps serve democracy or in the case of Cuba, the progress of the country. Based on Chapter 15, we know that mass media has different effects on the general population and effects on an individual level. Cuba might be trying to control the extent of outsider influence by restricting certain ideas, but as we can see from El Paquete when people want something they will find a way. In the states, we have the opposite problem where there are too many media sources trying to influence us. The bigger picture is not about the danger to democracy by media, but the danger of not having transparency, availability, and honesty to create meaningful information through mass media. A way to engage in the solution to this problem is to keep the audience informed of the different choices they have, so the audiences are not limited. Another solution to contribute to the mass media outlets, so they don’t have to focus on corporate interest. In Cuba, there should be more media sources like On Cuba, it uses caution but it is still informative. Works Cited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://oncubamagazine.com/en/ http://www.trabajadores.cu/ http://lagacetanewspaper.com/ http://www.telemundo.com/ http://www.radiohc.cu/
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