MIAMI — Spanish-language social media and so-called influencers on YouTube and other platforms are rapidly becoming the chief source of news and information about Cuba among Cubans and Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade County, displacing the old standbys of radio and television, Florida International University’s new Cuba poll has found.
The poll, conducted regularly since 1991, focuses principally on parsing Cuban American views on U.S. policy toward Cuba and its Communist government, including subjects such as the long-running trade embargo.
For the 2022 edition, poll director Guillermo Grenier, an FIU sociology professor, decided to also take a look at a relatively new and often controversial phenomenon — social media — and how influential it may be when it comes to views on Cuba among local Cuban Americans, including those recently arrived from the island.
The short answer: very.
Asked where they go for news from Cuba, 37% of all survey respondents said they get their information from social media. That’s a larger slice than reported getting their Cuba news from television (32%) or radio (8%), formerly the go-to sources for the community.
Grenier said he was surprised by social media’s newfound dominance. And it’s only growing, especially among the young. Among those aged 18 to 29, 54% said they get their Cuba information from social media.
“It never has been like this,” Grenier said in an interview. “TV usually reigns. This is the first time more people say they get it from social media than TV.”
‘These are entertainers’
The rising political role played by Spanish-language social media and social media influencers, especially in Miami, has been a subject of intense debate and civic concern since it became a significant factor in the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats, political analysts and academics contend social media and some popular influencers on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have acted as fonts of often inflammatory disinformation and extreme right-wing propaganda aimed at an audience of Cuban American and other Latino voters, without the editorial vetting of mainstream news outlets. Republicans and their supporters argue that what critics mislabel as misinformation is just common political disagreement, saying that Democrats and their allies are taking aim at those with opposing views as more Hispanics have turned to the GOP.
The FIU poll did not delve into social media content. Grenier said he’s separately conducting research to determine where the most popular influencers fall in the political spectrum, and whether their influence on Cuba matters extends to domestic U.S. politics for their followers. Another question he hopes to clarify is whether Cuban Americans who tell pollsters they are influenced by social-media personalities adopt a hard line toward Cuba and U.S. Cuba policy.
“This begs more questions than I have answers for right now,” Grenier said, but added he finds some implications of the poll findings troubling: “They are using these (influencers) as news sources and there is no accountability here. These are entertainers. They want the clicks, the YouTube views. It’s laughable to consider them as news sources. Yet when it comes to information on Cuba, that’s who these folks get it from.”
The influencers
The poll found that the influencer most Cuban Americans say they turn to, by far, is controversial YouTuber Alex Otaola, whose "Cubanos por el Mundo" channel lists 251,000 subscribers. Otaola’s daily two-hour-plus diatribe on YouTube attacks and mocks not just the Cuban regime but also Cuban hip-hoppers, common Cubans in need of assistance after a hurricane, Democrats, liberals, rival influencers, trans people and assorted U.S. and Latin American celebrities, among others.
Grenier said Otaola’s political commentary is hard to distinguish from the extreme-right views and themes that have come to dominate GOP politics.
But that has made Otaola a sought-out player in the GOP. He has done an interview with former President Donald Trump and garnered invites to political events from conservative Republican figures such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The poll asked respondents to name social media figures they follow, but did not suggest names. Besides Otaola, who was named by 40% of all respondents, other influencers garnering significant numbers were, in rough order of popularity, shock-jock podcasting duo Los Pichy Boys, DJ Ultrack, YouTuber Eliécer Ávila and five others.
Nearly one in five poll respondents said social media figures influence their political views, survey results show. That proportion increases among younger respondents and among Cubans who arrived in Miami in the past two migration waves from the island. Among those aged 18 to 39, for instance, nearly 30% say they are strongly or somewhat influenced by social media celebrities. Nearly a quarter of Cubans who settled in Miami since 2015 also say they are swayed to some degree by the influencers.
Those numbers underscore the fact that most of the popular influencers among Cuban Americans got their start and began attracting their audiences while still in Cuba, as the government made the internet freely available and set up free WiFi in parks and public places, Grenier noted. Many of them eventually left Cuba but brought that connection to listeners and viewers with them and expanded their audiences once outside of the island.
“They were making not only a living off the internet, they were making a career,” Grenier said. “It’s not unique to Cuba, of course. It’s everywhere. Cubans have put their unique spin on it, and a lot of it has to do with the political environment in Cuba and in the United States. It’s clearly an entertainment venue that requires a certain skill set. Cubans have clearly brought this into our world, and it’s fraught with political dimensions both domestic and international.”
Increasingly, the poll shows, the influencers are replacing traditional sources of news and commentary for the Cuban community, including Spanish-language radio, for decades the dominant medium. Broadcasters like Radio Mambí, though long dominated by often strident conservative voices, especially on the topic of Cuba, did allow other voices, including local Democrats, to make appearances. But they have seen their audiences and influence wane even as they’ve become more monolithic, shutting out all but a handful of opposing views in favor of fealty to Trump and his supporters.
Television news and commentary, which gradually supplanted radio before making way for social media, still rules among older Cuban Americans. Some 60% of those over 75 get their Cuba information from TV, as do 43% of those aged 60 to 70. So do 43% of Cuban Americans who arrived before 1995.
But for those who arrived since, or were not born in Cuba, the proportions nearly flip, and social media predominates as a source of Cuba-related news and information, survey figures show.
Among those 18 to 29, only 13% report getting Cuba news from TV — about the same proportion reporting they get their Cuba information from family and friends.
“It’s a real generational shift that is being driven by new arrivals,” Grenier said.
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