Drawing the dark night: mass media and anti sandinist political identity building

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to argue about the role of some Nicaraguan media in the construction or strengthening of an anti-Sandinista political identity in a sector of the country’s population. The second is to propose a characterisation of this anti-Sandinista political identity. To this end, it analyses the version and interpretation of the revolutionary process in Nicaragua (1979-1989) currently offered by various media outlets, especially the daily La Prensa ?the country’s most important newspaper? and its monthly supplement Magazine. The text offers a brief overview of the theoretical difficulties presented by the concepts of identity/identities, suggesting the convenience of thinking of political identity as a specific type of collective identity. It then presents an analysis of a selection of journalistic materials, focusing on the following questions: how is the revolutionary decade remembered there, what imaginaries are constructed in this respect, and how do the narratives contribute to the cohesion and consolidation of an anti-Sandinista political identity. It is argued that the different framings in which the events are presented are, in this case, fundamentally negative, and that they contribute to the construction of an adverse perception of the Sandinista revolutionary process (and of Sandinismo in general). Before concluding, a proposed characterisation of anti-Sandinista political identity is presented.