Description
Book SynopsisThe triumph of the Cuban Revolution gave the Communist Party a monopoly over both politics and the mass media. However, with the subsequent global proliferation of new information and communication technologies, Cuban citizens have become active participants in the worldwide digital revolution. While the Cuban internet has long been characterized by censorship, high costs, slow speeds, and limited access, this volume argues that since 2013, technological developments have allowed for a fundamental reconfiguration of the cultural, economic, social, and political spheres of the Revolutionary project.
The essays in this volume cover various transformations within this new digital revolution, examining both government-enabled paid public web access as well as creative workarounds that Cubans have designed to independently produce, distribute, and access digital content. Contributors trace how media ventures, entrepreneurship, online marketing, journalism, and cultural e-zines have been developing on the island alongside global technological and geopolitical changes.
As Cuba continues to expand internet access and as citizens challenge state policies on the speed, breadth, and freedom of that access, Cuba's Digital Revolution provides a fascinating example of the impact of technology in authoritarian states and transitional democracies. While the streets of Cuba may still belong to Castro's Revolution, this volume argues, it is still unclear to whom Cuban cyberspace belongs.
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Introduction. In Medias Res: Who Will Control Cuba's Digital Revolution?
- PART I. History, Media, and Technology
- 1. The Past, Present, and Future of the Cuban Internet
- 2. Historical Itineraries and Cyclic Trajectories: Alternative Media, Communication Technologies, and Social Change in Cuba
- PART II. Politics
- 3. ICT, State Power, and Civil Society: Cuban Internet Development in the Context of the Normalization of Relations with the United States
- 4. Ghost in the Machine: The Incompatibility of Cuba's State Media Monopoly with the Existence of Independent Digital Media and the Democratization of Communication
- 5. The Press Model in Cuba: Between Ideological Hegemony and the Reinvention of Civic Journalism
- 6. Digital Critique in Cuba
- PART III. Journalism
- 7. From Generación Y to 14ymedio: Beyond the Blog on Cuba's Digital Frontier
- 8. Independent Journalism in Cuba: Between Fantasy and the Ontological Rupture
- 9. Perceptions of and Strategies for Autonomy among Journalists Working for Cuban State Media
- 10. Independent Media on the Margins: Two Cases of Journalistic Professionalization in Cuba's Digital Media Ecosystem
- PART IV. Business and Economy
- 11. Online Marketing of Touristic Cuba: Branding a "Tech-Free" Destination
- 12. "A Una Cuba Alternativa"? Digital Millennials, Social Influencing, and Cuentapropismo in Havana
- PART V. Culture and Society
- 13. Without Initiation Ceremonies: Cuban Literary and Cultural Ezines
- 14. Images of Ourselves: Cuban Mediascapes and the Postsocialist "Woman of Fashion"
- Notes
- List of Contributors
- Index
