International Communication, National Identity, and Political Change

The role of international

news in Puerto Rico’s

political discourse

Aitza M. Haddad, J.D., LL.M.

MCMS 757-01 – Seminar Int’l Communication

Dr. Anju G. Chaudhary

April 23, 2014

• U.S. Citizenship – Jones Act of 1917– Wave of domestic migration of Puerto Ricans

to the U.S. • 2012 – Approximately 4,970,604 Puerto

Ricans living in the U.S.

• Considered Hispanics or Latinos for many purposes– Scholarships and census

• In 2011, Puerto Ricans were the second-largest population of Hispanic origin living in the U.S.

– International residents of the U.S.

Introduction

• Instead of a bigger spotlight in the international community, because of the complexity of the Island’s status, recent literature lacks a comprehensive picture of characteristics of Puerto Ricans compared to other Hispanic groups (Collazo, Ryan & Bauman, 2010), such as the Mexican American experience (Torres, 2004). – Perpetuation of the colonial status – individual

and collective needs and claims invisible to the international community and political agendas.

Introduction

• 1990 – Fundamental factor shaping Puerto Rico’s media system – the Island’s status with the United States– Media shaping the Island’s status with

the United States and the world• Media access • Voice in media coverage • Media representations

– Individual and collective process of national identity formation

– Assuring a place in the policy-making

Problem Statement

• Are issues about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans covered by major news media networks, such as CNN, ABC & BBC?– If so, how?

• Relationship with knowledge, attitudes and perceptions about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans by U.S. residents of the mainland

–And by the residents living in the Island

Research Question

• News about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans are not only scarce, but also very limited in its scope and focus, especially with respect to the real political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics of the Island and its people.

Hypothesis

• News and information about this territory, in the midst of intense deliberations about its future status with the U.S., are not presented in any regular nor substantial way in the news media that shape public knowledge and opinions.

Hypothesis

Discussion

• Effects of the transmission of panethnicity through globalized Spanish media and interpersonal transnational contact (Roth (2009)

• Effects of the homogenization of the label Hispanics by the mass media and the exploitation of this group’s shared culture or common patterns or characteristics (Álvarez-González, 2010)

Conclusion

• Such invisibility has potentially detrimental consequences, not only for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans national identity and cultural value, but also for U.S. internal and foreign policies and affairs.

QUESTIONS

Aitza M. Haddad, J.D., LL.M.

amhaddadlaw@gmail.com

Haddad@amhaddadlaw.com