Consuming Conflict: Somali Diaspora Audience

Abstract

This chapter is an empirical account of how diasporic media content is consumed amongst its diaspora audiences. It highlights how diaspora media can become a platform that enables conflict-generated diaspora groups to become social networks that link past conflict, the contemporary challenges of living in a host state and an aspiration of return to a particular piece of territory that is the symbolically important homeland. When conflict dynamics are manifested within these social networks, the re-creation of conflict takes place, which then facilitates the engagement of diaspora with homeland conflict, producing a cyclical progression of conflict re-creation. But there are noteworthy exceptions, particularly in terms of diaspora actively engaging in humanitarian assistance and development projects as a result of media content they’ve seen. The chapter also demonstrates the deliberative engagement of diaspora audience with potential to recognise when content falls below acceptable professional standards or when it explicitly seeks to fuel existing tensions, which is a positive sign. However, this deliberation doesn’t stop the diaspora from regressively engaging with those tensions, which is a sign of the fine line that Somali diasporas balance on between civil and uncivil societies. Diaspora communities have come to play a crucial role in contemporary conflicts due to the rise of a new pattern of conflict and the increased speed of communication and mobility (Demmers in The Public 9(1): 86, 2002). This chapter gives voice to the Somali diaspora communities. It relates their views, reactions and concerns regarding diaspora media content.