Nicole Stremlau

Contact details:

Nicole.stremlau@csls.ox.ac.uk

Office: +441865 271069

Nicole Stremlau is Coordinator of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk).

 

Qualifications:

• BA, College of Social Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT.
• MA, International Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK.
• PhD, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics (LSE), London, UK.

Nicole Stremlau’s current research is in on media policy in post-war situations. She has conducted extensive research in Ethiopia and lived there for several years.  She also worked a local newspaper in Addis Ababa.  Dr. Stremlau has studied the communication strategies of guerrilla movements and their approach to media policy after seizing power. Her current research is on information flows in Somaliland and Somalia examining how they affect the nation and state building process.  She recently started an ESRC research project on China’s media policy in Africa that explores the role of Chinese media as well as Chinese support to local media.

Dr. Stremlau is a researcher and author for the Horn of Africa for the annual Freedom House Press Freedom Rankings. She has been a regular contributor to Janes Intelligence Review and has consulted for the World Bank in Addis Ababa as well as for Human Rights Watch. Prior to coming to PCMLP, Dr. Stremlau was director of the Africa programme at the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research.

 

Core research and supervision interests:

• Media and development
• Freedom of expression
• communication in war/post-war situations
• media, nationbuilding and political power
• Strategic communication
• Horn of Africa and Eastern African politics (particularly Somalia, Somaliland and Ethiopia)
• Political ideology and communication
• Media and elections
• Cultures of communication

 

Selected Publications and Presentations:

Currently authoring a book on comparative media policy and nationbuilding in post-conflict states in Eastern Africa drawing on extensive research in Ethiopia, Uganda and Somaliland.

Co-authoring a book on journalists and guerrilla movements in Eastern Africa.  The book is built on the collection of oral histories and interviews in Ethiopia, Uganda, Somaliland, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Sudan.   

Stremlau, N.  and M. Price, (2009) ‘Media and Post-election Violence in Eastern Africa’.  http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/news/2009/media-and-election-violence-eastern-africa-new-report-published

Stremlau, N., M. Blanchard, Y. Gabobe and F. Ahmed (2009). ‘Media and Elections in Somaliland: Lessons from Kenya’.

http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/news/2009/role-media-somaliland-elections-new-report-published .

Stremlau, N., Review: Press, Politics and Public Policy in Uganda, Equid Novi, Forthcoming, November 2009.

Deutsche Welle, ‘Media and Conflict’, organized a panel on Media and Election Violence, 3-5 June 2009, Bonn, Germany

International Communications Association, ‘Diagnosing Information Flows in Somaliland’, 21-24 May 2009, Chicago, USA

Gagliardone, I. and N. Stremlau. (2008). Public Opinion Research in a Conflict Zone: Grassroots Diplomacy in Darfur.  International Journal of Communication, 2, 1085-1113. 

Stremlau, Nicole “Information Flows in Ethiopia”, (July 2008). Report for The World Bank.

Price, M., I. al Marashi, and N. Stremlau. (2009). ‘Polarization and Media: The Problem of the Governance Agenda in Post-Conflict Societies’, in Pippa Norris (ed) Public Sentinel: News Media & Governance Reform.

Stremlau, Nicole, “Transferred Hostility: Ethiopia and Eritrea’s Unregulated Tensions”, (May 2008) Janes Intelligence Review, pp. 2-5.

London School of Economics and Political Science Fifth Anniversary of Media@lse, ‘Tools for Comparing Media Systems’, 23 September 2008, London School of Economics, UK.

International Association for Media and Communication Research, ‘Liberalization of the Press in Post-conflict Situations’, 22 July 2008, Stockholm, Sweden

Putzel, J., J. van der Zwan with T. Allen, M. Price and N. Stremlau. (2006). Why Templates for Media Development do not work in Crisis States, Workshop Report, London School of Economics.

Allen, T. and N. Stremlau (2005). In Hemer, Oscar and Thomas Tufte (Eds.). Media and Global Change: Rethinking Communication for Development. Nordicom.

Allen, T. and N. Stremlau (2005) ‘Media Policy, Peace and State Reconstruction’, LSE Crisis States Discussion Paper 8.

Stremlau, Nicole (2004). ‘Review: Information Intervention’, Journal Progress in Development Studies.

Selected workshops convened:

• International workshop on media and post-election violence, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2008)
• International workshop on research for strategic communication in Darfur, Oxford, UK (2006)
• International workshop on reporting conflict, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2005)
• Six week seminar course for journalists from East Africa at the London School of Economics (2005)

 

Media:

• Blogger for the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-stremlau
• Articles in the Ethiopia’s Reporter newspaper (2001-2002) www.ethiopianreporter.com
• Commentator on East African politics in East African, The Somaliland Times and IRIN (2009).  Examples include: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/657204/-/qyvis9z/-/index.html

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86162

• Research has been covered in regional publications such as the East African, The Somaliland Times and international sites such as Reuters and IRIN (2009).

Examples include: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86254

http://www.somalilandtimes.net/