Introduction

The Cuban media system has, among other features, the predominance of media with a structural relationship with the Communist Party and other parastatal organizations, as well as the considerable incidence of external guidelines and controls on the press. This order of things confers relevance to the press, which due to its independent character from the media-partisan structure, proposes to break with the conditions in which official journalism has been developed on the Island. In this context, another important feature of the media system in the country is related to the presence of direct attacks, as well as structural and symbolic violence against independent journalists (^{García Santamaría, 2019}).

The article starts from the objective of analyzing the way in which the conditions of journalistic production are manifested in independent media of the media-partisan structure in Cuba (specifically in two relevant journalistic organizations: Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo) in reference models of professional practice.²

In this sense, it is argued that in studied media it is generated the oppositional models of multiple intervention (concept defended in this work) as forms of concretion of the conditions of journalistic production that start from a criticism of the previous professional practice and that find a support in the horizontal participation of diverse actors in the productive dynamics of the media.

At the same time, it is pointed out that the following features constitute these models:

Several of these features coincide with some characteristics pointed out by the previous literature on media similar to the Cuban ones but located in other national spaces and some are endowed with specificity in the face of the particularities of the Island, marked by a series of processes typical of an order of authoritarian things (^{Chaguaceda & Geoffray, 2015}) that have directly affected the development of the media system in general and journalism specifically (^{Olivera, 2019}). In this sense, it can be pointed out that the independent journalism of the partisan media structure in Cuba is not only relevant for the presumed critical content that it proposes regarding the reality of the country, but also for the particularities in the materialization of the productive processes within certain media in the authoritarian context of the Island.

During the research that supports this work, theoretical-conceptual references were used to examine the conditions of journalistic production at the transnational, of structure and normativity, of extra-media relationships, operational-organizational and individual levels. This involved a dialogue with contributions from areas of study on the trans-nationalization of communication, the media system, journalistic production within media organizations and journalistic endeavors, among others. In the specific case of antecedents located in the Cuban context, it was based on the recognition of works that make allusion to the development of independent journalism (^{Celecia-Pérez, 2020}; ^{Díaz, 2018}; ^{García Santamaría, 2019}; ^{Henken, 2017}; ^{Morales, 2017}; among others), as well as the broader framework of research on communication and journalism in the country. In this sense, it was possible to recognize that, although there are previous contributions aimed at examining the processes of journalistic production on the island, there is a scarcely explored area, from empirical research, on the way where these are manifested in media independent of the media-partisan structure.

In the research, a qualitative perspective was assumed and an in-depth interview with 40 professionals associated with the studied media was used as a fundamental technique. Documentary research was also used to complement the findings generated from the interviews.

As part of the structure of this article, a first section is proposed in which the referents in which the work and displacements that constitute the theoretical-conceptual and methodological support of the argument of the text are referred to. Subsequently, the methodological strategy is explained in order to later refer to the results and conclusions of the research.

Conceptual framework for the study of journalistic production conditions

In the specific case of the research that supports this work, the conditions of journalistic production (in media independent of the media-partisan structure) were assumed as the central category. These can be understood as processes that delimit and configure professional practice from different levels in particular organizations with a specific location in the structure of the media system. They account for processes of institutionalization of behavior, agreements, collective negotiations, tensions and conflicts in the field of journalistic production. In this work, the concept refers to journalistic organizations that are not controlled, supported and/or recognized by the State and the Party in the Cuban context.

The article defends the relevance of an integrative approach, which implies accounting for the possibility of assuming different levels for the analysis of the conditions of journalistic production, but at the same time recognizing the relationships between them. The proposal of levels of analysis for the study of the media can be found in contributions from previous literature (^{Dimmick & Coit, 1982}; ^{Hirsch, 1980}; ^{McQuail, 2000}; ^{Shoemaker & Reese, 2014}) but in this work an own construction is carried out. An allusion is made to the transnational levels, of structure and normativity, of extra-media relationships, operational-organizational and individual.

The transnational level refers to the conditions that transcend the territory of the country and, specifically, to the diasporic condition of the media and the network of transnational relations created around them. This level of analysis has been recognized from previous research to account for the communicative reconfigurations of the public sphere and of processes that affect the journalistic field (^{Heft et al., 2019}; ^{McNair, 2006}; ^{Reese & Shoemaker, 2016}; ^{Reese, 2010}).

On the other hand, the level of structure and regulations refers to the organization of the media system and the legislation that conditions the journalistic professional practice. At the same time, with the level of extra-media relations, the link between relevant agents for the exercise of the profession, its recognition and legitimacy in a given context is realized.

The emphasis in the research that supports this work on the structural and normative conditions, and on extra-media relations finds, with direct or tangential allusions, extensive antecedents in the previous literature on the study of media systems (^{Guerrero, 2014}; ^{Guerrero & Márquez-Ramírez, 2014}; ^{Hallin & Mancini, 2008}; ^{Siebert et al., 1963}, among many others). Other works that focus specifically on relevant agents and links in the practice of journalism, such as those established with information sources, also contribute to the understanding of the last level of analysis mentioned (^{Carlson, 2009}; ^{Gans, 2004}; ^{Manning, 2001}; ^{Sigal, 1993}; among others).

With the operational-organizational level, on the other hand, the conditions associated with the procedures, structural-organizational features and editorial demands of the media studied are reported. Within the antecedents that account for the conditions and dynamics that typify the professional journalistic exercise, there are those inquiries that have alluded to the procedures and organizational dimensions and constitute “classics” within the area of study (^{Fishman, 1983}; ^{Gans, 2004}; ^{Tuchman, 1983}; among others), and others that, also focused on this level of analysis, have made renewed contributions to this field of inquiry (^{Boczkowski, 2004}; ^{Domingo, 2008}; ^{Usher, 2014}).

Finally, with the level of individual analysis, it makes allusion to the general characteristics of the professionals linked to the processes of journalistic production. In addition to the allusion to socio-demographic characteristics and professional training and experiences, the previous literature has focused, among other aspects, on the symbolic universe shared by media professionals as a condition of journalistic production (^{Deuze, 2005}; ^{Hanitzsch, 2007}; ^{Janowitz, 1975}; ^{Johnstone et al., 1972}; ^{Weaver et al., 2007}; ^{Weaver & Wilhoit, 1996}).

In the research in which this work is based, the literature that has referred to the material and professional support of new journalistic ventures was also addressed (^{Carlson & Usher, 2016}; ^{Naldi & Picard, 2012}; ^{Wagemans et al., 2019}; ^{Wagemans et al., 2016}). From all the mentioned sources, several displacements were proposed in relation to some central contributions in the previous literature, which constitute the theoretical-conceptual and methodological basis of the argument of this article:

Methodological strategy

The research in which this article is based resorted to a qualitative perspective that allowed assuming a reflexive, inductive and interpretive framework. The research design is that of a multiple case study. In this particular research, several cases were examined, taking into account the importance or revelation that each one brings to the study as a whole (^{Rodríguez et al., 1999}). In the selection of the cases, were taken into account the criteria of accessibility, temporary availability, probable contribution to the quality and credibility of the study, as well as variety and balance between the features of the cases (^{Rodríguez et al., 1999}).

The media analyzed are Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo. The first emerged in 2015 committed to addressing the environmental agenda from investigative journalism. The second arises in 2016 with the intention of developing a narrative journalism about the transnational condition of current Cuba. Young journalists fundamentally manage both, although they are at the same time spaces of confluence for professionals with diverse backgrounds (and marked by professionals from different generations). Their journalists have received international recognition, such as the Gabo Award from the Foundation of the same name or the Ibero-American Special Award for Environmental Journalism and Sustainable Development, one of the categories of the International Journalism Awards Rey de España.

In the research, the in-depth and semi-structured interview was assumed as a fundamental techniques due to the possibility they offered of combining structure with flexibility, the potential to achieve deep answers in terms of penetration, exploration and explanation, as well as its generative condition when creating new knowledge or thoughts (^{Legard et al., 2003}). In the specific case of this research, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 media professionals. This allowed reconstructing the context in which the journalists of Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo operate, and the productive processes within the media and the different meanings with which they associate the social task of the profession. The interviews took place between February and September 2019.

The following stages associated with the use of this technique were assumed: 1) the design of the interview instrument for media professionals (around the five central thematic axes/levels of analysis in the research); 2) contact and exchange with the interviewees; and 3) transcription and encoding.

As a complementary technique, documentary research was used on texts that could account for the conditions of journalistic production in these independent media from the media-partisan structure in the country: documentary research was undertaken between August 2016 and December 2020. The following stages were associated with the use of this technique: 1) instrument design; 2) compilation of the material; and 3) data analysis.

Conditions of journalistic production in independent media from the media-partisan structure in Cuba (Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo)

From the analysis of a transnational level of the conditions of journalistic production in Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo, it is possible to refer to the concretion in these media of a participatory transnational multi-situality. This refers to the way in which professionals linked to these media organizations, located in different national spaces, develop an active participation in editorial processes.

In Periodismo de Barrio, one can speak of a given multi-situality towards the interior of Cuba, but in certain situations and stages of the productive processes there is an influence of transnational processes. In El Estornudo, a diasporic condition can be pointed out, manifested both in the intention to address the deterritorialized character of current Cuba, and in the dispersed location in different countries such as Cuba, Mexico and the United States of relevant actors for its operation.

This is mediated, in the opinion of one of the interviewees, by a regulatory framework that has changed in recent years around Cuban emigration, which fosters a type of relationship with the country and unthinkable itinerancy in previous generations of resident professionals outside the island: “this new generation does not experience the phenomenon in the same way, because there is a legal basis for it to be different: the 2013 immigration reform. This grants residency and repatriation facilities” (Interviewee 1, collaborator of El Estornudo, May 20, 2019).

In El Estornudo, the location in different national spaces of relevant actors within it generates several benefits in the face, for example, of its legal recognition outside of Cuba, its management and financing: “it is a Cuban magazine but in another country, that is, we have to respond to the laws of Mexico. In Cuba there is no possible way, there is no law that allows for an independent journalistic company…” (Interviewee 2, member of El Estornudo, July 29, 2019).

At the same time, in this media, although the diasporic condition generates the positive consequence already mentioned, among others, a negative affectation can also be pointed out given the dispersion of journalistic production processes, unlike what happens in Periodismo de Barrio at the time of the fieldwork of this research. The latter media is characterized by greater regulation of internal processes.

Looking at the level of analysis of structure and regulations of the conditions of journalistic production, on the other hand, shows that these generate an inclusive reactivity in the media studied. This accounts for the defense of media plurality through the questioning of the structural or normative order, or through the development of productive processes of collaboration between various journalistic organizations with particular characteristics within the media system.

In Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo, inclusive reactivity takes shape as a defense of its possibility of existing as media with a communicative offer and different ways of doing journalism in a context marked structurally by a predominance of the official press, a propagandist discourse of this and the generation of a series of restrictions for the exercise of journalism independent of the media-partisan structure, sometimes protected by decrees.

In Cuba, the ^{Constitution of the Republic (2019)} does not express an explicit recognition of the independent media of the media-partisan structure, which puts them in a position of special vulnerability and brings negative consequences to the professional practice. There are also other complexities that have to do with the regulatory framework that affects communication. Among other decrees-laws and resolutions, we should stop at Decree Law No. 370 “On the computerization of society in Cuba” from which the violations associated with ICTs are delimited (^{Consejo de Estado, 2018}). This has served to penalize journalists from independent media. Previous literature has also highlighted Decree Law No. 302 as relevant to understand the complexities in which the practice of journalism takes place. From this, the departure of Cuban citizens from the country for reasons of defense and national security can be limited (^{Celecia-Pérez, 2020}). The latter has also been used in the strategies generated from power to confront independent journalists in the context of the island.

Inclusive reactivity is associated with the recognition by the interviewees of the differences of this type of media in relation to others located in the country: “The vision of what journalism is and what it should be used for and the type of things that we privilege at the time of doing journalism” (Interviewee 3, member of Periodismo de Barrio, February 27, 2019), is something that distinguishes Periodismo de Barrio in the Cuban media structure according to one of its members, which was also recognized by the journalists and collaborators of El Estornudo.

It has also been highlighted that a different type of journalism implies a distancing from any business or political instance that could condition their agendas. It has also been said that, although they are media that try to respond to emerging demands in the public space and specific conditions of the social fabric or to the situation of Cubans located in other national spaces (in the particular case of El Estornudo), their resistance to external pressures are not only associated with opposition to political or economic agents but also to the users themselves. It is a type of journalism that “is not looking for readers or to win audiences; it does not make concessions with them…” (Interviewee 4, member of El Estornudo, February 15, 2019). This idea, shared by the interviewees of both media, implies a defense of the quality of journalistic texts and seriousness in professional work, as well as an understanding of the social assignment fundamentally associated with these two aspects mentioned.

The emphasis on the distinctions pointed out in the interviews is directly linked to the demand of the professionals for the expansion of the frameworks for the free exercise of journalism in Cuba, which leads to a reaction centered on the demand for respect for the existence of the relevant media. However, the defense of the possibility of existing in the media studied is not only based on the organizations to which the professionals interviewed belong, but also refers to media that are structurally in the same conditions. Inclusive reactivity is also manifested in the generation of collaboration networks, and the renunciation of the idea of competition between independent media or the allusion to it only to account for distinctions regarding the quality of the messages.

When examining the conditions of journalistic production at an extra-media relationship level, the research first showed that these media are developed in the face of the hostility of power and other actors with greater or lesser proximity to it. Regarding the Cuban context, direct attacks have been reported, but also structural and symbolic violence against independent journalism (^{García Santamaría, 2019}). This has manifested itself not only in the discourse of discredit generated by different agents associated with power, the professional field itself and the academy, but also in intimidation, verbal aggression, provocations on public roads, harassment, arbitrary arrests, interrogations, raids on addresses, confiscation of work means and prohibitions to leave the country, among other evidence (^{El Estornudo, 2019}).

At the same time, in Cuba the rejection and suspicion on the part of potential living sources of information around the independent media of the media-partisan structure is sometimes evident, precisely due to the strength of the political discourse from which the symbolic capital of these journalistic organizations is questioned. This is also related to the subjects’ fears of possible reprisals if they collaborate by providing information to journalists from these media. In turn, there is evidence of positions contrary to those described, both in official sources and in citizens, from which a collaborative link is generated with the journalists of the media studied.

The interviewees from Periodismo de Barrio have highlighted that official sources do not always resist exchange. There are those who have highlighted that there are those sources that “have nothing to lose” (Interviewee 5, member of Periodismo de Barrio, March 24, 2019) and collaborate with the media, others that provide information off the record, some that allow to confirm several data in the works developed by this independent medium, as well as those that neglect the importance of the information provided.

In relation to citizens as living sources, one of the interviewees from El Estornudo speaks on various specific reporting processes to account for the diversity of positions regarding these media. After a plane crash in Havana on May 18, 2018, the media outlet set out to carry out a job that would record all of this day. When several witnesses who could provide their stories were approached they refused to collaborate. In another article by El Estornudo about the “mules”,³ the journalist recalls that the interviewees gave their testimonies, but refused to provide their names due to the illegal nature of their activity. By revealing their identity, this could lead to retaliation from those in power. This journalist points out, however, that, after a tornado passed through Havana, on January 27, 2019, he prepared to make a small report in the Regla municipality of the Cuban capital. In that case he found a lot of collaboration between the neighbors: “nobody had problems in giving their names at that time and show the situation that was there” (Interviewee 6, collaborator of El Estornudo, February 14, 2019).

An important relationship for the functioning of the independent media of the media-partisan structure in Cuba is, on one hand, the one established with the sources of financing. Here we should highlight two imperatives that go through the studied media: the need to find financial resources that are not obtained through public means on the island and, at the same time, the relevance of maintaining a responsible exercise of the profession that is not affected by the intervention of external agents to the journalistic organizations. Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo are carried out through this tension.

From the analysis of these conditions and others, the research showed that self-managed relational flexibility is manifested in the studied media. This refers to the way in which relations with external agents occur with the intention of facing impediments to the development of journalistic organizations. The self-managed relational flexibility is evident, with its nuances in one or another media, in the search for alternatives in the relationship with actors external to journalistic organizations such as the following: avoid confrontation with agents of power in the exercise of reporting; the reporting of the aggressions; the publication of works on certain platforms to make them visible despite the blocking of one of them (El Estornudo) within the country; recourse to documentary sources or interaction with live sources of information willing to collaborate in journalistic work beyond the resistance of institutional or citizen sources; the relationship with instances and agents outside the country that can provide financing for the support of journalistic organizations, among others.

Likewise, by assuming a level of operational-organizational analysis in the examination of the conditions of journalistic production, in the research it was possible to determine that these are manifested, fundamentally, in terms of a horizontal and polycentric operability in the studied media. This alludes to the relationships given within the organizations between the different actors that integrate them in the editorial decision-making processes marked by an active participation of the subjects and a flattening of the media structures.

The professionals of Periodismo de Barrio gave several examples in the interviews of collective and horizontal work in the exercise of journalism that goes through all the stages of the productive processes, from planning to the dissemination of materials. Among the examples mentioned, they pointed out the production of the report “The dead waters of the Havana Club”. Beyond its author, this work was followed up by other professionals in the field during the nine months that the research and conception that the text lasted. The director of the media highlights that this accompaniment helped guide the investigation. She also specified that the accompaniment of the editorial board of Periodismo de Barrio could reach in the case of complex works an agreement on the structure that the produced material can have (Interviewee 5, member of Periodismo de Barrio, March 24, 2019).

Regarding El Estornudo, one can frequently find in the responses of the interviewees the emphasis on the individual initiative of the professionals, sometimes subject to the demands of the group and the debates that take place within the magazine. There has been talk of the “naturalness” of the production processes, which again refers to a flattening of the structure of this media in particular (Interviewee 7, collaborator of El Estornudo, February 28, 2019).

On the other hand, the allusion to polycentrism in productive dynamics implies recognizing the centrality of a technological mediation that, in its articulation with other processes, is relevant to understanding the development of these media. In this sense, the subjects assume the potentialities offered by ICTs for the generation of new projects or the insertion in those established in recent years, in an environment in which the control of the media has been monopolized by the State and the needs of expression of criteria by young professionals seek a way to be channeled. These potentialities have allowed, in turn, the confluence of multi-site efforts in media that, like those studied, do not have physical newsrooms and in which work is managed in the virtual environment through Messenger, WhatsApp, email or through apps like Trello.

Finally, the analysis of the conditions of journalistic production at an individual level reveals that these are specified in terms of professional anti-authoritarian discourse (and representation) in the media studied. Allusion is made with this to the way in which professionals consider the duty to be as far as the relationship with the power and the users, as well as the relevance or not of the intervention of their personal criteria in journalistic works.

In Periodismo de Barrio and El Estornudo, the professional anti-authoritarian discourse (and representation) results from the confluence of young people trained as journalists in the academy (although among its members and collaborators, subjects from other professional fields and some who are not part of the youth group may also be mentioned), with particular professional careers (in many of them their link to the official network of the press in Cuba, other independent media within the country and some foreign media could be highlighted) and the insertion of socialization processes that transcend borders of the island. The diverse spatial location of the members of these media, inside and outside of Cuba, as has already been recognized, allows us to speak of a transnational network made up of professionals who have in common an anti-authoritarian ideal from which they generate their journalistic practices.

It is possible to find among the professionals of these media the defense of a vigilant journalism, civic and attached to the facts. One of the interviewees from Periodismo de Barrio highlighted that journalism must “offer interesting information, relevant when making decisions for citizens” (Interviewee 8, member of Periodismo de Barrio, February 17, 2019). When making allusion to the functions of journalism from this media, emphasis has also been placed on the need for this profession to become “urgently” a counter-power, and in this sense the possibility of “questioning, and audit the administration and the discourse of the supposedly public powers in Cuba” (Interviewee 9, contributor to Periodismo de Barrio, March 29, 2019).

In El Estornudo, the profession has been understood as a “weapon of civil society against the established powers” (Interviewee 10, collaborator of El Estornudo, April 2, 2019). This is a function conceived from a confrontational point of view and associated with the visibility of actors and processes on which the broad mantle of opacity that falls in Cuba.

The assumption and participation in the debates that make up the Cuban social fabric has been another assignment to the profession by the interviewees of El Estornudo. The professionals of this medium have highlighted the importance of this function even to put actors to converse whom, given the polarization that Cuban society is going through, would not exchange it (Interviewee 11, collaborator of El Estornudo, February 22, 2019).

In the research in which this article is based, as previously highlighted, the presence in the studied media of oppositional models of multiple interventions is defended, as a concept of closure of the investigative work. These account for ways of concretizing the conditions of journalistic production that have their origin in criticism of (although continuities could also be manifested with) the development of journalism in a specific context, as well as being based on the empowerment of the horizontal participation of multiple actors in decision-making in journalistic production. These models are constituted, in turn, by several features understood as forms of materialization of the conditions of journalistic production at their different levels, which have been previously referenced (Table 1).

Conclusions

The allusion to the oppositional models of multiple intervention as a closing category of the research on which this text is based, allows us to account for a circular relationship between conditions of journalistic production and models generated from its realization. The firsts result in the seconds, and the models, with the potential to constitute the symbolic universe of professionals in the journalistic field can be part, in turn, of journalistic production conditions in particular media.⁴

The allusion to participatory transnational multi-situality, as a feature of the oppositional models of multiple intervention, has started from the defense of a theoretical-conceptual and methodological displacement within the area of journalism studies towards the examination of the dynamics that transcend the limits of the nation-state and affect the exercise of this profession (^{Heft et al., 2019}; ^{McNair, 2006}; ^{Reese, 2010}; ^{Reese & Shoemaker, 2016}; among others). However, the allusion to inclusive reactivity, as another feature of the oppositional models of multiple intervention, has been supported by the recognition, in turn, of the characteristics of the media systems in specific national spaces, beyond the defense of the necessary attention to the dynamics of transnationalization to understand current communication processes (^{Mihelj & Downey, 2012}).

For its part, the self-managed relational flexibility starts from the understanding of the extreme media relationship in terms of resistance and adaptation, at the same time as in terms of learning by professionals oriented to the creation and support of new journalistic ventures. In the case of the media analyzed in this work, this self-managed relational flexibility occurs in the face of hostile positions of power and agents with a greater or lesser proximity to it. In turn, new concerns and ways of relating to external agents emerge among professionals in the face of the imperative of managing and maintaining new journalistic organizations. The latter can be seen, for example, in the case of the relationship with the sources of financing, as documented in previous literature in allusion to different contexts (^{Deuze & Witschge, 2020}; ^{Naldi & Picard, 2012}; ^{Singer, 2016}), and at the same time, it becomes clear in the media analyzed in this work.

The allusion to horizontal and polycentric operability, on the other hand, is also based on the defense of the relevance of theoretical-conceptual and methodological shifts within the study area of journalism. It implies emphasizing the multi-situated condition of production (^{Singer, 2016}; ^{Wahl-Jorgensen, 2009}; ^{Witschge & Harbers, 2018}) and the possible agency capacity of the subjects involved in the exercise of the profession (^{Cottle, 2000}). The emphasis on the latter makes it possible to refer to a flattening of production processes, an aspect that has been documented in the analysis of other media in contexts other than Cuba (^{Deuze & Witschge, 2018}). In the particular cases of the media studied, the allusion to horizontal and polycentric operability leads to highlighting that independent journalism in an authoritarian context such as the Cuban one proposes not only a fracture with the way in which the official press expresses itself about reality of the country but also in the way of organizing production processes in a more participatory way.

Lastly, the allusion to professional anti-authoritarian discourse (and representation) is based on the idea that in cases such as those studied, is based on a “meta-journalistic discourse” (^{Carlson, 2016}; ^{Carlson & Usher, 2016}) from which professionals of the new media define their practices, their role in society and the limits in the exercise of the profession, often in contrast to the previous journalistic exercise (^{Carlson & Usher, 2016}; ^{Wagemans et al., 2019}; ^{Wagemans et al., 2016}). In the subjects interviewed, this research showed identification with vigilant and civic ideals of journalism. This also shows continuities with inquiries from which other contexts are alluded to (^{Hanitzsch et al., 2011}; ^{Johnstone et al., 1972}), but at the same time, highlights the specificity of a reactive professional discourse in the face of the conditions that have governed the exercise of journalism in a country like Cuba.

The allusion to oppositional models of multiple intervention accounts for both the materialization of journalistic production conditions nuanced by specific features of the Cuban context, as reported by some coincidences with previous contributions on journalism in other national spaces. Attention to this concept could be the origin of dialogues in future research, located or not on the Island, on the emergence and development of new media such as those examined in this work.