Abstract
The United States and Cuba made history in late 2014 by announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations. With the media coverage and social media content related to the announcements as a stimulus, this pre-post-study noted increases in U.S. adults’ levels of perceived knowledge, salience of attributes, as well as attitudes toward Cuba after the joint proclamations. Results suggest that media coverage and social media content played major roles in influencing both public knowledge of and attitudes toward Cuba as a country. These first- and second-level agenda-setting effects are positioned within the Model of Country Concept as an example of soft power. The power of international media to affect both cognitive and affective evaluations among the citizens of one country about the government and citizenry of another is discussed. This article is published as part of a collection on soft power.
Highlights
The United States and Cuba made history in late 2014 by announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations
The revolution launched an era of hostility between the two nations that lasted more than five decades. This period was highlighted by a series of contentious encounters between the two governments including the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion by U.S troops, the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 and the return to Cuba from Miami of a 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez, whose mother drowned in an attempt to escape to the United States (Barringer, 2000)
The survey did not distinguish between Cubans who live in the United States and those who live in Cuba
Summary
The United States and Cuba made history in late 2014 by announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations. Results suggest that media coverage and social media content played major roles in influencing both public knowledge of and attitudes toward Cuba as a country These first- and second-level agenda-setting effects are positioned within the Model of Country Concept as an example of soft power. A simultaneous December 2014 announcement by U.S President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro kicked off a series of initiatives that began with the release of prisoners in both countries who had been accused of spying (DeYoung, 2014; Federal Register, 2015) As of this writing, the soft power policies toward the island nation have included the re-opening of respective embassies, the loosening of travel and commerce restrictions, the commencement of direct commercial flights between the countries and a historic visit of the first sitting U.S president in almost a century (Davis, 2016a). Many of these efforts by the U.S government were politically unpopular and loudly opposed by the Cuban-American lobby based in south Florida, who vehemently rejected reconciliation between the two countries
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