to trade with Eastern Europe has led to shortages of parts and television sets. Cuba is no longer the breaking ground for new technologies. The economic blockade has severely impacted media production in Cuba. This can be seen in the use of aged transmitters, and almost the obsolete analog technologies that have not yet been replaced. There is also a great concern for the future of radio and television image and sound archives. Irreparable losses are occurring due to the lack of air-conditioning and rise in humidity. Due to lack of audio and videocassettes, producers have been re-recording over tapes that have already been used. Of all the media, the print media was hit the hardest by the economic crisis. (Salwen 39) Because the printing of periodicals depended entirely on the import of newsprint and other supplies from the former Soviet Union, daily publications of magazines and other periodicals was severely cut. (Salwen 39) By 1994, the number of daily newspaper that has been published weekly in the country was less than half of what it had been in 1989. (Salwen 39) As a result of the crisis some 300 print media journalists, that is 10% of the total island, found themselves jobless. (Salwen 39) In Cuba today there are three national newspapers in circulation, Granma, Trabajadores and Juventud Rebelde. Granma is the voice of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and the country's newspaper of record; Trabajadores is the newspaper of the National Workers Confederation; and Juventud Rebelde is the paper of the Youth Organization. (Cubanet) Cuba also has two news agencies. El Agencia de Informacion National (AIN or National News Agency), has news desks in almost every province in Cuba and a radio service that is widely used by provincial and municipal radio stations. (Cubanet) The other, Presna Latina, has correspondents in various parts of the world. Despite serious economic limitations and lack of hardware, Cuban media has...
