News consumption in Cuba: practices of national audiences

Abstract

The relationship between media and audiences in Cuba is characterized by the disconnection between the media agenda and the reflection of everyday life. Such a gap has dented the credibility of national sources in the eyes of a public that now has a growing variety of options for information. This article collects the results of a recent research that describes fundamental features of the practices of consumption of news information by Cuban audiences; In addition, behaviors associated with the consumption of fake news and the credibility of the most used sources are described. Following a quantitative perspective, a representative sample of all the provinces of the country was surveyed. As conclusions, the prevalence of the age variable in the delineation of news consumption stands out; as well as the maintenance of a majority perception of the official Cuban media as legitimate and credible sources in the eyes of their audiences, despite criticism of their performance.