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WHEN NOBODY LISTENS

Assessing the Political Success of Radio Martí

Pennsylvania State University

All of the media flows in Latin America described previously in this volume are motivated primarily by profit-making commercial interests. In contrast, Radio Martí is a U.S. propaganda broadcasting operation intended to bring about political effects among the people of Cuba. The plan for Radio Martí ignores (1) past communication research showing that the mass media seldom have direct effects, and (2) the ineffectiveness of previous U.S. radio propaganda aimed at Cuba. If broadcasting to Cuba will not be effective in changing the attitudes of Cuban audiences, why is the U.S. government spending $14 million annually on Radio Martí? This article views Radio Martí as a system's response prompted by (1) a shift in inter-American relations, and (2) Cuban exiles and politically conservative groups in the United States who influenced the Reagan Administration to launch this project as a political symbol. Thus Radio Martí can be understood best as a political effect rather than as a cause of audience effects.

Communication Research, Vol. 11, No. 2, 281-304 (1984)
DOI: 10.1177/009365084011002009


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