Mediating identity crisis: A discourse analysis of conflict reporting in the African diasporic press in the United Kingdom

Abstract

People in the diaspora exhibit a dual identity, that is, an identity connected to their homeland and to their host country. This duality creates a constant tension, which could escalate into a crisis when they are exposed to negative messages about events at home such as conflict, political and economic instability and/or to negative messages about events in the host country such as unfavourable changes in immigration policy, physical attacks on group members and negative stereotyping in the mainstream media. This study focuses on the role of diasporic media in mediating identity crisis among black African diasporas. Adopting interview and critical discourse analysis methods, this study found that the African diasporic press de-escalates identity crisis by projecting African diasporas as ‘doers’ rather than as ‘villains’ in the news. But it fails to drastically reduce identity crisis because of a limited use of conflict-sensitive reporting criteria in news stories of African conflicts.