Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba

8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba

1/10

Social Justice/Global Options is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Justice.

http://www.jstor.org

Profile of U.S. Press Coverage of CubaAuthor(s): Flora Biancalana and Cecilia O'LearySource: Social Justice, Vol. 15, No. 2 (32), HUMAN RIGHTS & U.S.-CUBAN RELATIONS IN THE

REAGAN ERA (Summer 1988), pp. 63-71Published by: Social Justice/Global OptionsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766408Accessed: 13-03-2015 04:21 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 131.104.62.10 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 04:21:04 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=socjusgloopthttp://www.jstor.org/stable/29766408http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/29766408http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=socjusgloopthttp://www.jstor.org/


2/10

Profile of

U.S.

Press

Coverage

of

Cuba

Flora

Biancalana

and Cecilia

O'Leary

The

following

profile

of

U.S.

press

coverage

of Cuba resulted

from the

systematic monitoring

of

nine

newspapers

and

eight periodicals

in

1986.1 These newspapers and periodicals ? the Christian Science

Monitor,

Journal

of

Commerce,

Los

Angeles

Times,

Miami

Herald,

New

York

Times,

San Francisco

Chronicle,

San Francisco

Examiner,

Washington

Post,

Wall Street

Journal,

Business

Week, Forbes, Fortune,

Harpers,

Newsweek,

New

York Review

of

Books,

Time,

and U.S. News

&

World

Report

?

were

se?

lected

to

represent

national,

regional,

and local

coverage,

as

well

as

a

range

of

established

political

and business

interests.

(See

below

for

a

full

description

of

our

methodology.)

In

our

survey

of

1986

press

coverage,

we

found

331

items about Cuba.

Most of the

coverage

was

news

stories

(72.6%),

with

the remainder divided

between

opinions,

editorials,

book reviews and letters

see

Figure

4 at theend

of this

article).

There

was

considerable variation

in

the

amount

of

coverage

between

publications

(see

Figure

1).

The Miami

Herald,

with

its

proximity

to

Cuba and

large

Cuban-American

constituency,

had

the

most

coverage

of

Cuba

(152

items

or

45.9% of the

total).

After the

New

York Times

(71

items

or

21.5%),

coverage

in

all

other

newspapers

and

periodicals

was

sporadic

and

minimal

(each

had

25

or

fewer

items).

National

periodicals

and

weekly

news

journals

had almost

no

articles about Cuba

in

1986

(see

Figure

1

and Table

1).

The fact that there

was so

little

coverage

of

Cuba

makes the kind of

coverage

all the

more

important.

We

have divided

the

1986

coverage

into

20

topics.

Since

some

articles

covered

more

than

one

topic,

we

found 396

topics

in

the 331 items

(see

Tables

1

and

3).

As

seen

in

Figure

2,

the

topics

emphasized

were

human

rights,

Cuban-Americans,

Cuba's

foreign policy

and

economy,

U.S.

policy

towards

Cuba,

Fidel

Castro,

and

immigration.

There

was

minimal

coverage

of issues

which Cuba

thinks

are

important,

such

as

health,

the

arts,

education,

race

rela?

tions,

status

of

women,

youth,

etc.

Each of these

topics

had

less

than 2% of

the

1986

coverage.

The

exception

to

this

general

trend

was

religion

which,

given

FLORA

BIANCALANA

and

CECILIA

O'LEARY

are

members of

Global

Options'

U.S.?

Cuba

Project,

P.O.

Box

40601,

San

Francisco,

CA

94140.

SOCIAL

JUSTICE Vol.

15,

o.

2

63


http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/10

64 BlANCALANA

AND

O'LEARY

the

controversies

surrounding

Cuba's

improving

relations

with the

Catholic

Church,

received close

to

4% of the 1986

coverage.

In

general,

though,

the

press

focused

on

issues related

to

U.S.

foreign pol?

icy

concerns.

For

example,

the issue

of human

rights

in

Cuba received

77

items,

while

coverage

of

the

horrendous conditions under

which thousands

of

Cuban-Americans

were

imprisoned

in

the

U.S.

was

to

be

found

in

only

nine

items

in

the

press

(see

Table

1). (Massive coverage

of U.S.

prison

conditions

did

not occur

until Cuban

prisoners

rioted

in

1987.)

This bias

in

the

selectivity

of

reporting

was

also echoed

in

the

wording

of

headlines.2

The focus

on

nega?

tive news about Cuba was most apparent in theMiami Herald, whose 152

items

in

1986

included 32

on

human

rights

abuses,

26

on

the

need

for

tough

U.S.

policies

against

Cuba,

and

24

on

various crises and

disasters

in

Cuba

(see

Table

2).

Based

on a

content

analysis

of

underlying

assumptions,

we

also

sorted the

data

by

theme

(see

Tables

2

and

4,

Figure

3):

14.5%

reported

on

various

as?

pects

of

failures,

problems,

and

inadequacies

of Cuba's socialist

system

( Bad

News Is

Good

News );

10% described

improved

internal and international

re?

lations,

technical

advancements,

and

general

social

progress,

but

only

2.4% of

these

items

were

explicitly positive

about Cuba

( Good

News

Is

Ignored );

6%

reported

on

Cuba's

economic,

political,

or

military dependency

on

the So?

viet Union

( Soviet

Colony );

6.3% focused

on

Fidel

Castro's

relationship

to

Cuba and theCuban

party

( One-Man/One

Rule );

8.2%

reported

on

various

aspects

of

Cuba's

military

and

political

relations with

Third World countries

( Exporting

Revolution );

19.6%

catalogued

in

great

detail human

rights

abuses

in

Cuba

( Cuba

as

Prison );

8.2%

reported

on

people's

attempts

to

leave Cuba

( Fleeing

to

Freedom );

3.9% described the

imprisonment

and

other

problems

of

Cubans

in

the

U.S.

( Unfree

in

the

U.S. );

12.7%

reported

on

tough

U.S.

policies

towards Cuba

( Hard

Line );

4.2%

reported

on

efforts

to normalize relations with Cuba ( Normal Relations ); and 6.3% covered

a

variety

of other

insignificant

issues.

As

is discussed

fully

in

the article

by

McCaughan

and Platt

(1988),

this

survey

indicates that the 1986

press

coverage

of Cuba

was

highly

selective,

generally negative,

and

Westerncentric.3

The issues covered

typically

reflected

the interests of

official

U.S.

foreign

policy, ignored

Cuba's

concerns,

and

ne?

glected

issues

of

likely

interest

to

theU.S.

public,

such

as

health

care,

job

se?

curity,

education,

and

quality

of life.

A

Note

on

Methodology

With the

exception

of the San Francisco

newspapers,

thenewspaper items

primarily

came

from

a

clipping

service

provided

by

Information

Services

on

Latin

America

(ISLA),

which is based

in

Oakland,

California.

Their 1986

cov?

erage

of Cuba

was

supplemented by

clippings

available

at

Global

Options,

San




4/10

U.S. Press

Coverage

of

Cuba 65

Francisco,

and

the

Data

Center,

Oakland.

In

addition,

given

our

location,

we

also

surveyed

San Francisco's

two

major daily

newspapers

(which

we

com?

bine

as one

data

source).

The search

of the

eight

periodicals

was

based

on

items listed

in

the

Readers' Guide

to

Periodical Literature 1986

and

a

search

of files

at

the

Data

Center, Oakland,

and

Global

Options,

San Francisco.

(While

it is

quite likely

that

we

missed

several items about

Cuba

in

these

newspapers

and

periodicals,

our

search

was

systematic

and

representative

of

press

coverage

in

1986.)

A

computerized

data base

was

then

created,

in

which

we

entered the

fol?

lowing

data:

Publication,

Date,

Author, Headline,

Coverage

(news

story,

opinion,

editorial,

letter),

Topic,

Theme,

and

Summary

(of contents).

The

top?

ics

were

based

on

descriptive

categories

and the

preponderant

focus of each

item.

In

cases

where

more

than

one

topic

was

covered,

we

noted

this; thus,

the

number of

topics

(396)

exceeds the number

of

items

(331).

The

themes

were

developed

in

the

course

of

a

content

analysis

of the

data,

of

key

terms

and

phrases,

and of

ideological

comments

within the

press

coverage.

The

themes

are

analytical categories

that

cut

across

topics; they

re?

flect

our

qualitative

interpretation

(McCaughan

and

Platt,

1988),

as

well

as

quantitative summary of the data. Most of the themes identify the different

ways

in

which the

press

communicates hostile

judgments

or

assumptions

about Cuba.

In

order

to

guard against

bias,

we

also

carefully

searched for

items that reflected neutral

or

positive images

of Cuba. These

are

discussed

in

the Good

News is

Ignored

and Normal Relations

sections

of the

McCaughan

and Platt article

(1988).

NOTES

1.

A

complete

summary,

sort,

and

analysis

of all

the

data used

in

this

and the

following

arti?

cle

can

be found

in a research

report,

Tropical

Gulag:

The

Construction

of

Cold War

Images

of

Cuba

in

theUnited

States,

available for

$15.50

(including

postage)

from Global

Options,

P.O.

Box

40601,

San

Francisco,

California,

94140.

Copies

of

the

original

newspaper

and

periodical

stories,

as

well

as

the

computerized

data

base,

are

also available

at

Global

Options.

2. A

listing

of

all headlines is also available

in

Tropical Gulag

(see

footnote

1).

3. The

qualitative

analysis by McCaughan

and Platt

(1988)

is based

on

the

same

data

base

summarized

in

this

article.

REFERENCES

McCaughan, Ed and Tony Platt

1988

Tropical Gulag:

Media

Images

of

Cuba,

Social Justice

15,2.

Platt,

Tony

(ed.)

1987

Tropical

Gulag:

The Construction

of

Cold

War

Images

of

Cuba

in

the

United

States.

San Francisco:

Global

Options.




5/10

66

BlANCALANA

AND

O'LEARY

Table

1:

Number and

Percentage

of

Newspaper

and

Periodical

Items

on

Cuba

by

Topic

in

1986

U.S.

Press

Topic

% of

Topics

CS1 JC2 LA3MH4 NY5

SF6 WP7

WS8

PR9

Total

Total

Cuban

Americans

Foreign

Policy

Immigration

and Travel

Military

Radio

Marti/Communications

Human

Rights

Cuban

Prisoners

in

theU.S.

U.S.

Policy

Toward Cuba

Economy

Castro

and the

Party

Health

Religion

Arts

Youth

Overview

Blacks

Nuclear

Sports

Environment

Education

31

23

18

2

5

13

16

4

10

1

1

3

4

1

7

7

9

1

5

35

20

1

5

17

16

1

3

1

3

8

3

4

2

4

1 1

1

3

4

46

44

36

5

14

77

9

43

32

38

5

15

2

2

11

2

6

3

5

1

11.6

11.1

9.1

1.3

3.5

19.4

2.3

10.9

8.1

9.6

1.3

3.8

0.5

0.5

2.8

0.5

1.5

0.8

1.3

0.3

Totals

24

185

87

22 29

23

14

396

100.0

1.

CS

=

Christian Science Monitor

2. JC

=

Journal

of

Commerce

3.

LA

=

Los

Angeles

Times

4.

MH

=

Miami Herald

5. NY

=

New York

Times

6.

SF

=

San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner

7.

WP

=

Washington

Post

8. WS

=

Wall

Street

Journal

9.

PR

=

Summary

of

eight

periodicals

(see

Table

3

for

list)

Note:

Although

there

are

331

items

on

Cuba,

some

covered

more

than

one

topic.

Therefore,

the

number

of

topics,

396,

is

greater

than

the total of items

on

Cuba.




6/10

U.S.

Press

Coverage

of

Cuba

67

Table

2:

Number and

Percentage

of

Newspaper

and

Periodical Items

On

Cuba

by

Theme

in

1986

U.S.

Press

Theme

%

of

Themes

S1 JC2

LA3MH4

NY5

SF6

WP7

WS8 PR9

Total

Total

Bad News Is Good

News

Good

News Is

Ignored

Soviet

Colony

One-Man,

One-Rule

Exporting

Revolution

Cuba

as

Prison

Fleeing

to

Freedom

UnfreeintheU.S.

Hard Line

Normal

Relations

No

Theme

Assigned

24

16

7

4

15

32

10

1

3

4

4

14

7

7

26

10

2

5

15

2

48

33

20

21

27

65

27

13

42

14

21

14.5

10.0

6.0

6.3

8.2

19.6

8.2

3.9

12.7

4.2

6.3

Totals

8 19 152 71 21 25 18 14 331 100.0

1.

CS

=

Christian

Science

Monitor

2. JC

=

Journal

of

Commerce

3.

LA

=

Los

Angeles

Times

4.

MH

=

Miami Herald

5.

NY

=

New

York Times

6.

SF

=

San

Francisco

Chronicle

&

Examiner

7. WP=

Washington

Post

8.

WS

=

Wall Street Journal

9. PR = Summary of eight periodicals (see Table 4 for list)




7/10

68

BIANCALANA

AND

O'LEARY

Table 3:

Number

and

Percentage

of

Periodical

Items

On

Cuba

by

Topic

in

1986 U.S. Press

Themes

Theme % of

BW1

FR2

FT3 HR4

NW5

NY6 TM7 US8

Total Total

Cuban

Americans

Foreign

Policy

Immigration

and Travel

Military

Radio

Martf/Communications

Human

Rights

Cuban

Prisoners

in

the

U.S.

U.S.

Policy

Towards Cuba

Economy

Castro

and

Party

Health

Religion

Arts

Youth

Overview

Blacks

Nuclear

Sports

Environment

Education

3

1

1111

1

1

1

1

4

0

1

0

0

4

0

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

28.6

0.0

7.1

0.0

0.0

28.6

0.0

7.1

14.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

14.3

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

Totals

1111

14

100.0

1. BW

=

Business

Week

2.

FR

=

Forbes

3.

FT

=

Fortune

4.

HR

=

Harpers

5.

NW

=

Newsweek

6.

NY

=

New

York

Review

of

Books

7.

TM

=

Time

8. US

=

U.S.

News and World

Report




8/10

U.S.

Press

Coverage

of

Cuba

69

Table

4:

Number

and

Percentage

of Periodical

Items

On Cuba

by

Theme

in

1986 U.S. Press

Themes

Theme % of

BW3 FR2 FT3 HR4

NW5

NY6 TM7 US8

Total

Total

Bad News

Is

Good

News

Good

News Is

Ignored

Soviet

Colony

One-Man,

One-Rule

Exporting

Revolution

Cuba

as

Prison

Fleeing

to

Freedom

UnfreeintheU.S.

Hard Line

Normal Relations

Other

No

Theme)

1 1 1

3

0

0

0

0

5

2

3

0

0

1

21.4

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

35.7

14.3

21.4

0.0

0.0

7.1

Totals 1

1 1 1 1

14 100.0

1.

BW

=

Business

Week

2. FR

=

Forbes

3. FT

=

Fortune

4. HR

=

Harpers

5. NW

=

Newsweek

6.

NY

=

New

York Review

of

Books

1. TM

=

Time

8.

US

=

US.

News

and World

Report




9/10

70

BlANCALANA

AND

O'LEARY

Figure

2:1986

Coverage

of

Cuba

by

Topic

(2.8%)

(10.9%)




10/10

U.S.

Press

Coverage

of

Cuba

71

Figure

3:1986

Coverage

of Cuba

by

Theme

News

Story

(72.6%)

Thi t t d l d d f 131 104 62 10 F i 13 M 2015 04 21 04 UTC
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

Documents

Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba