IDEOLOGY IN INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION: RADIO WARS BETWEEN CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES. (VOLUMES I AND II) (BROADCASTING, CONTENT, ANALYSIS)

International radio broadcasting is a primary vehicle of ideological confrontation among nations. In few regions of the world is this "war of ideas" as intense as it is in the Americas between Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) and the Voice of America (VOA). These two opposing radio stations are important weapons in the battle for the hearts and minds of opposing populations in the hemisphere. This study begins with an historical overview of the Cuban-American radio war from its inception in 1961 through 1983. A theory of Inter-Ideological Propaganda State Apparatuses (IPSAs) is elaborated based on the writings of Karl Marx, Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci. Next, the suitability of content analysis as a measure of the ideological content of communication is considered. Bilingual coders coded newscasts from sample periods in 1979 and 1982. Both stations highlighted new of technical achievements and basically agreed that nations act in rational self-interest. Individual human achievements were ususally overshadowed by the role behavior of leaders and officials. While VOA often carried criticism of U.S. policies, RHC never reported events that questioned Cuban policies. VOA's predominant concern was with U.S. affairs, while RHC covered events in dozens of small, underreported countries. While VOA displayed an introspective self-image, RHC'S new reporting suggested a self-image of outward involvement and internationalism. VCA treated Central America largely as a "rebellion" and Nicaragua as a "war." RHC, in contrast, was more concerned with "governmental diplomacy" of Central America. RHC gave great prominence to the affairs of Non-Governmental Organizations, while VOA covered them rarely. The two stations displayed interesting differences in their conceptions of such keywords as democracy, peace, and human rights; these differences reflected the embracing ideological orientation of the stations' parent superstructures. Volume I contains the historical, theoretical and analytical chapters. Volume II is an appendix which contains the transcripts of the newscasts, headline-like summaries of the news items, and the coded data themselves.