The Somali Media, Diaspora communities and the concept of conflict re-creation

Abstract

Somalia has for more than two decades been in a perpetual state of conflict and more than a million Somalis have fled the initial civil war. They have formed a substantial diaspora community and have set up their own websites and TV stations to remain engaged with the happenings of their homeland. Diasporic media is often hailed as a medium that allows immigrants to maintain their identity in their host country as well as providing a platform to sustain ties with their homeland. However, if these ties are being maintained with a homeland that is in a state of conflict, there is very much a possibility that the dynamics of the conflict will be transported and re-created amongst the diaspora audiences. This article illustrates how diasporic media can re-create conflict, through a theoretically developed and empirically informed argument that provides three distinctly analytical approaches, referred to as the three politics of non-recognition, solidarity and mobilisation. The article argues that diasporic media is more complex than existing scholarship has demonstrated and that there is a need to broaden the scope of current academic debates concerning the interplay between diasporic media, transnationalism and conflict.