The Impact of the End of the Cold War on Canada free essay sample

This article examines major network news coverage of Cuba in Canada (CBC and CTV) and in the United States (ABC, CBS, and NBC) from 1988 through 1992. Given the different histories of Canadian-Cuban and U. S. -Cuban relations since the revolution, the extent of similar negative coverage of the island in both countries reporting is somewhat surprising. Also, it is apparent that the end of the Cold War did not change, in any fundamental way, the frames employed by television news in its coverage of Cuba. Resume: Les changements profonds dans le systeme politique international qui ont eu lieu de 1988 a 1992, et quon decrit generalement comme marquant la chute du communisme, indiqueraient la possibilite dun changement dans la facon que les chaines nord-americaines auraient de rapporter les evenements dans leurs programmes dinformation sur le Cuba. Cet article examinera les programmes dinformation des chaines canadiennes les plus importantes (CBC et CTV) et de celles des Etats-Unis (ABC, CBS et NBC) de 1988 jusqua 1992. We will write a custom essay sample on The Impact of the End of the Cold War on Canada or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Etant donne levolution differente dans les relations Canada / Cuba et Etats-Unis / Cuba depuis la revolution cubaine de 1959, nous avons ete frappes par le degre de ressemblance entre les reportages negatifs sur le Cuba faits par les chaines des deux pays nord-americains. En plus, il est evident que la fin de la guerre froide na pas change de maniere fondamentale le point de vue des reportages televises sur les evenements cubains. INTRODUCTION Between 1988 and 1992, the years for which we examine coverage of Cuba on Canadian and American television news, the international system experienced a series of profound changes. The fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989 signalled the end of Communism in Eastern Europe, while the failed coup in Russia in the summer of 1991 marked the end of Communist control in that country as well. These events ended the Cold War which had set the framework for international politics for over 40 years and, while scholars debated what it would look like and what forces would drive it, a New World Order was widely proclaimed (Cox, 1994; Huntington, 1993; Pfaltzgraff, 1994; Sideri, 1993). From 1947 to 1992 the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was waged on a global scale. While no country in the Western Hemisphere completely escaped the machinations of the Cold War, Guatemala, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Grenada were deeply affected. Cuba, however, was the pre-eminent flash point for U. S. -USSR conflict in the Hemisphere (Dominguez, 1978; Geyer, 1991; Huberman Sweezy, 1969; Oppenheimer, 1992). Most analysts agree that the few weeks of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 marked the closest point during the Cold War where a full-scale nuclear war between the U. S. and the USSR could have begun (Blight, Nye, Welch, 1987; Garthoff, 1988). Thus, not discounting U. S. hostility to Fidel Castros domestic policies and their impact on U. S. interests, it was Cubas role as a military ally / base /surrogate which allowed the USSR to project its military power into not only the Western Hemisphere but also Africa that magnified U. S. pposition to the Cuban Revolution (Bernell, 1994). Canada was a full partner of the United States in the Cold War as evidenced by military alliances such as NATO and NORAD. Nonetheless, a desire to conduct an independent foreign policy as a middle power frequently led Canada to adopt postures different from their ally. None has turned out to be as significant as Canadas independent policy on Cuba. An historical detachment from Latin America had meant that fe w Canadian vital interests had developed in the area that were threatened by the Cuban Revolution. Thus, Canadian policymakers did not accord Cuba the same prominence as did their American counterparts. Indeed, as time passed, the maintenance of some degree of normalcy in relations with Cuba was viewed as a testament to a made in Canada foreign policy. The contribution of mass media to understanding the world beyond ones range of personal experience is wide ranging (Bennett, 1988; Galtung Holmboe Ruge, 1965; Stevenson Shaw, 1984; Thompson, 1988). We know that there is reality as well as multiple media portrayals of that reality (Chang, Shoemaker, Bredlinger, 1987; Gans, 1979; Tuchman, 1978; Whitney Becker, 1982) and, as Todd Gitlin (1981) has summarized the relationship, the role of media is to certify reality as reality (p. 2). The question is which reality is certified? That is to say, which of a myriad of events are reported and in what perspective are those events portrayed? The momentous changes in the international system from 1988 to 1992 resulted in basic alterations in the structure of international conflict and significant foreign policy changes on the part of both Russia and the United States. In such circumstances media were offered an opportunity to re-assess the frameworks employed to explain international events. In this regard, Deutsch Merritt (1965) argue that perceptions of international reality (in their words images), once formed, act as filters or screens through which new information on the subject must pass. In the case of Cuba, the summary justice employed by the Castro government against officials of the Batista government in the immediate post-revolutionary period, the souring of relations between Cuba and the United States followed by the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and the move by Cuba into the Soviet orbit culminating in the Missile Crisis of October 1962 established a powerful set of negative filters through which events involving Cuba and Castro were interpreted by U. S. media in subsequent years. In a study of Fidel Castros image presented in The New York Times from 1953 to 1992, it was found that beginning in 1988 precisely when changes in the international system suggested a reduced threat emanating from Cuba Castro was presented in a more negative manner. For the first time, including the hostility-filled years of the 1960s, there was a focus on the negative aspects of Castro the person, as opposed to Castro the politician (Soderlund, 1997; see also Lewis, 1960; McCaughan Platt, 1988). It appears that U. S. edia would have four main framing or filter options available for dealing with Cuba in the post-Cold War era (Entman, 1991; Gamson, 1989; Iyengar, 1991). First, they could retain the Cold War frame of conflict and confrontation toward both Cuba and Castro without noticeable change. Second, they could depart radically from the earlier frame, presenting a positive, forgive and forget image, characterizing Cuba as an emerging nation and Castro as a misguided, but nevert heless honourable, leader. Third, they could separate the image of Cuba from that of the man who has dominated its politics for the past 40 years. Cuba could be presented in either a positive or negative fashion, while Castro could be presented in the opposite direction. Presenting Cuba and Cubans as a country and a people in need of liberation from a demented, power-hungry dictator who has lost touch with world developments is probably the most likely scenario for the third option. Fourth, as suggested by the change in The New York Times treatment of Castro beginning in 1988, we could see an increased coupling of Fidel Castros leadership with the progressively severe problems faced by Cuba in the post-Cold War period. This frame would result in the image of the country and its leader in fact coming closer together. Each of these options offer a reality that U. S. media can choose, independent of the facts of the situation. Each version of reality could serve as a possible framework for presenting facts regarding Cuba as events occurred over the period of the study. Perhaps there is a fifth filter more relevant for Canadian media. This would frame Cuba as a relatively unimportant, small country which, having lost its Cold War status, is no longer considered to be particularly newsworthy, hence coverage would drop off. U. S. -CANADIAN COMPARISONS This study compares U. S. and Canadian television news treatment of Cuba during a critical period of transition from one world order to another. As noted above, Canadian foreign policy toward Cuba had diverged considerably from that of the United States (Baranyi, 1985; Gorham, 1991; Haglund, 1987; Rochlin, 1988). Most notably, Canada never recognized the U. S. -imposed economic embargo of the island and continued to carry on diplomatic and trade relationships with Cuba. Pierre Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister for most of the period 1968 to 1984, developed a warm personal relationship with Fidel Castro, and in 1976 the Trudeau family made a highly visible visit to Cuba. Canadian foreign policy differences with the United States made Canada wary of entry into the Organization of American States, which finally occurred in 1990, because successive Canadian governments feared that membership would either lead to conflict with the U. S. over Latin American policy (Cuba in particular) or could create circumstances in which Canada might be perceived as a foreign policy handmaiden to the United States. In any event, one would expect that coverage of Cuba in the Canadian mass media would have less of an ideological basis than would be the case in the United States. If a countrys mass media broadly reflect government policy (Herman Chomsky, 1988; Parenti, 1986), one would hypothesize a less negative image of Cuba and Castro on Canadian, as opposed to American, television news and predict further that this less negative image would be even more evident with the end of the Cold War. In the case of American TV networks, in addition to expecting a more negative portrayal of the island and its leader overall, it is debatable as to which reality filter U. S. television would follow when moving from a Cold War to a New World Order relationship with Cuba and Castro. Thus there are two interrelated questions which guide our inquiry: (1) What differences were there in Canadian and American TV presentations and images of Cuba and Fidel Castro? and (2) How did the end of the Cold War affect television coverage of Cuba in each country?