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/
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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.
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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.
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in 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)
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
9/10
70
BlANCALANA
AND
O'LEARY
Figure
2:1986
Coverage
of
Cuba
by
Topic
(2.8%)
(10.9%)
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/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/19/2019 Profile of U.S. Press Coverage in Cuba
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