Cuba’s “Alternative Media” - Crisis or Opportunity?

Cuba's "Alternative Media": Crisis or Opportunity?
November 12, 2015
By Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES — Some days ago, I attended InCubar, the third course on
social network management offered by the Aca Media Latam Foundation.
There, promoters, bloggers, journalists and private and State community
managers came together in a very agreeable atmosphere.

The course got us up to date on strategies used to make the most of
social networks. In one of the exercises, we were asked to identify our
main strengths – and the main challenges we faced – in terms of the
development of our projects.

We were divided into groups (institutions, journalists, bloggers and
others) in order to diagnose the situation we faced in each of our
sectors, the indispensable first step for developing any strategy. I was
placed in the bloggers group.

It would take too long to describe the conclusions arrived at by each of
these groups, so I'll focus on those identified by my colleagues in
Cuba's official media. They saw a "threat" in the emergence of
"alternative" media that offer greater "diversity."

I've placed the three words in quotation marks because I believe these
are the key issues we debated during the workshop. To consider emerging
news sites as "threats" boils down to regarding them as "enemies," when,
in fact, they could constitute an "opportunity."

The end of Cuba's information monopoly may be regarded as the besieged
fortress that was finally "penetrated" by the enemy or as the beginning
of a new form of competition that could become the engine that
transforms us into the journalists the nation needs.

The official media suffers from such "politico-editorial verticality"
that they have even published different newspapers with the same front
pages.

The truth of the matter is that those who write for "alternative"
digital media are as good as those who write for the official press –
sometimes, they are even the same people. The difference is that they
play by other rules. In one place, they are allowed to soar. In the
other, their wings are clipped.

If I worked for an official Cuban publication, I would be delighted to
see the spread of new informative sites dealing with Cuban issues. In
the first place, because it would allow me to demand greater "autonomy"
in order to compete with them.

These sites also represent a source of employment, giving Cuban
journalists better-paid work options with greater editorial freedom. For
the first time in decades, leaving the official press does not
necessarily mean quitting our work as communicators.

These spaces are an "alternative" for journalists and a "threat" to the
censors and editors, who will have no choice but to negotiate, because
imposing restrictions is making them lose more and more young talents
every day.

Today, there is broader "diversity" in terms of information about Cuba
and this diversity is part of life itself. It's positive to have
different viewpoints expressed. As more and more Cubans find a space to
express their opinions, we will be move increasingly closer to the truth.

Some critics of my blog, Cartas desde Cuba, accuse us of "running with
the hares and the foxes," as though this were a strategy, as though we
woke up every morning and asked ourselves: "how do we praise and who do
we criticize today?" They don't realize societies are built with a broad
variety of materials.

Differing opinions won't go away just because we ignore them in the
media. In Cartas desde Cuba, we publish many texts and comments we do
not agree with, and we do so because they have an impact on the lives of
Cubans and are therefore of public interest.

Cuban journalists also face the challenge of giving voice to this
diversity and the national press faces the challenge of putting its
"proselytism" behind it and of becoming a public entity, faithfully
capturing the opinions and experiences of all citizens. The little
credibility the official press has is not a new problem.

Back in the 90s, Cuban humorists were already mocking the partiality of
the press. Despite this, everything remained the same because nothing
"threatened" it, there was no "alternative" source of information.

People start scrambling when the end of the monopoly nears, with the
emergence of new digital news sites, the Internet and the "weekly
package." The government itself begins to demand a more credible,
balanced, opportune, attractive and critical journalism.

In some cultures, the word "crisis" has a positive connotation, and they
may well be onto something. There's no doubt the crisis created by
"alternative" media is a good ally of Cuban journalism, making change
necessary and offering us the opportunity to improve.

Source: Cuba's "Alternative Media": Crisis or Opportunity? - Havana
Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=114922