HAVANA AND KINGSTON: MASS MEDIA IMAGES AND EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS OF TWO CARIBBEAN CITIES IN CRISIS

Abstract

Havana and Kingston are two cities in crisis. Havana is plagued by severe shortages of food, fuel, and other basic imports, and by widespread building deterioration. Kingston has extensive poverty, high unemployment, increasing crime, and deteriorating roads, buses, and working-class housing. Despite the problematic conditions found in both cities, recent coverage of them by major U.S. newspapers differs in extent, content, and underlying message. Heavy coverage of the crisis in Havana describes a desperate population in a decrepit city, and attributes the crisis to the failures of Castro and communism. The media less thoroughly and less urgently cover the crisis in Kingston, and what problems they do report are not traced to the political economic system or to political leadership. Despite these reporting inconsistencies, the media's presentation of the world is very influential. As this paper demonstrates, fully deconstructing news media images requires that they be systematically compared to those generated by empirically informed geographical research. Such comparisons also contribute to a broader research project aimed at exposing and contesting the social construction of place.

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