ABOUT
Dr Idil Osman is an academic, TV host and an expert on media, conflicts, migration and development matters in Africa. She holds a PhD from the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University and has authored numerous publications that focus on media, conflict, development and migration.
Her most recent book, 'Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict', uses the Somali conflict as a case study to reveal how the media plays a participatory role in transnationalising conflicts and offers new insights on migration, diaspora communities and international development.
Dr Osman regularly provides expert commentary on African issues and writes for global media outlets such as Al Jazeera, African Arguments, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and TRT World. She is currently the host of Press TV's 'Africa Today' programme where she discusses African current affairs on a weekly basis.
MEDIA DIASPORA & THE SOMALI CONFLICT
“This book systematically examines the role of media and diaspora in the context of conflict. Surpassing the limits of previous studies on media and diaspora, the book goes beyond diaspora’s identity maintenance and examines how transnational media become involved in conflict – both in reinforcing tensions and in advancing peace initiatives. By focussing on the Somali diaspora and its media space, the author offers a multidimensional and provocative analysis of the troubled and promising space of diaspora and transnational communication.”
Professor Myria Georgiou, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
“This book offers important insights into the complex, fluid, and often contested relationships between diasporic populations, homeland ‘remainees’ and external networks. Their use of and access to diverse forms of media play a key role in shaping the societies that are central to those networks. The Somali case is both apposite for such a study, while also offering rich and contextually specific material in its own right. Idil Osman’s exploration of these themes provides a welcome addition to an area of increasing interest to academics and policy-makers alike.”
Dr Michael Walls, Co-Director of MSc Development Administration and Planning, Senior Lecturer, UCL, UK
“Idil Osman examines the role of Somali diaspora media in maintaining the link between those who have been displaced to the far corners of the world by 25 years of war and state failure in Somalia and those who remain or who return there. Her account is striking for both its hard-hitting analysis and its gentle compassion. The author has been a participant observer in diaspora media for more than a decade. She uses her experience as a journalist and scholar to shine a light on her own community through displacement, conflict, and political reconstruction. The result is a fantastically well-informed analysis that never forgets that it is concerned with real lives and real stories about people who, despite having suffered greatly, are above all resilient and creative.”
Dr Laura Hammond, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
“The powerful role of the Somali media in inciting, inflaming and perpetuating conflict is a vexed and often neglected subject. Idil Osman tackles it head on, with rigour, courage and humanity. She examines the influential and often destructive part played by diaspora media, but also explores how the explosion of Somali media outlets has given limited space to marginalised groups and has the potential, at least, to open avenues for a more constructive sharing of ideas and information. The book is an valuable contribution to Somali studies.”
Mary Harper, Africa Editor, BBC News and author of Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State
ACADEMIC PUBLISHING
BOOKS
Osman, I. 2017, Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict, Palgrave Macmillan: London
Osman, I et al 2011, Somalia to Europe; Stories from the Somali Diaspora, Leicester Quaker Press: Leicester
REFEREED BOOK CHAPTERS
Osman, I. 2017, Connected to Conflict; the Precariousness of Working in the Somali Media in Media, Diaspora and Conflict, edited by Ogunyemi, O., Palgrave Macmillan: London
REFEREED AND INVITED JOURNAL ARTICLES & ESSAYS
Osman, I. (forthcoming) 2018, Media, Conflict and Diaspora Audiences, in Global Identity and Conflict through Diaspora Media, Crossings Journal of Migration and Culture, volume 8, issue 1
Osman, I. 2017, Somali diaspora and homeland relations in Education, Peace and Development in Somali Society, Education and Conflict Review, UCL Institute of Education
Issue 1, vol February pp16-19
Osman, I. 2017 (edt), Diaspora beyond Nationalism, Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Journal (JOMEC), Cardiff University Press, issue 11
Osman, I. 2015, The Somali Media, Diaspora Communities and the Concept of Conflict re-creation, Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Journal (JOMEC), Cardiff University Press, issue 7, pp1-17
BOOK REVIEWS
Osman, I. 2017, Images of Africa: Review of Julia Gallagher’s 2015 book Images of Africa; Creation, Negotiation and Subversion. African Journalism Studies, Routledge
REVIEWS OF MY BOOKS
Liempt, I. C. (forthcoming) 2018, Book Review ‘Idil Osman, Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict’ in special issue Forced Migration and Digital Connectivity, Social Media + Society, SAGE Journals
Baser, B. 2017, Book Review 'Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict', Journal for Ethnic and Racial Studies, Taylor and Francis, pp1-3
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
For PBS America, 'Emergency Living; Somalia in the Aftermath of a Famine' 2012
KEYNOTES
British History Month's Somali Week Festival 2017 Opening Keynote on 'Home and Displacement'