Abstract

Since Cuba’s revolution in 1959, the country has found itself among the Olympic medal world leaders in terms of medals won against population size. Given the growing importance of the relationship between politics, major sporting events, and the media, this research uses predominantly qualitative methodology to analyze Cuban newspaper Granma’s coverage of the sporting successes of Cuba between the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics. The longitudinal study of this 40-year period reveals that, in addition to its extensive coverage of the island’s ‘star’ sports – baseball, boxing, athletics, and volleyball – the news publication has systematically and effectively used sporting achievements as a way of putting the country on the map and lending it political legitimacy, both locally and worldwide. The epic language that has dominated Granma’s narrative has served to extol the successes of government policies, making the country a guiding light for the whole of Latin America. Thanks to the constant presence of winning athletes, who have filled the pages with their highly politically charged and emotive declarations, the narrative adopted by the publication has also acted as the mouthpiece for the key values and ideas of the revolution.

摘要

自 1959 年古巴革命以来，该国在获得的奖牌数与人口数量方面已跻身奥运奖牌世界领先者之列。鉴于政治、重大体育赛事和媒体之间的关系越来越重要，本研究主要使用定性方法来分析古巴报纸Granma报道了古巴在 1976 年蒙特利尔奥运会和 2016 年里约奥运会之间取得的体育成就。对这 40 年的纵向研究表明，除了广泛报道岛上的“明星”运动——棒球、拳击、田径和排球——新闻出版物还系统有效地利用体育成就作​​为推地图上的国家，并赋予其在当地和全球的政治合法性。主宰格拉玛的史诗语言的叙述有助于颂扬政府政策的成功，使该国成为整个拉丁美洲的指路明灯。由于获奖运动员的不断出现，他们用他们高度政治化和情绪化的宣言填满了页面，该出版物采用的叙述也成为了革命的关键价值观和思想的代言人。