Share & more
How we understand and respond to crises is shaped by the stories we tell. And we tend to listen to a few people: reporters and editors, researchers and academics, aid workers and humanitarian agencies.
In Decolonise How? – a new podcast from The New Humanitarian – host Patrick Gathara examines how well communicators fulfil their role, and the ethical questions they navigate. Who contr...
The strongest version of this narrative is its unflinching critique of how storytelling in humanitarian contexts often reinforces power imbalances. Gathara, Otiende, and Marchand effectively dismantle the myth of neutral journalism, exposing how narratives are shaped by colonial legacies, capitalism, and institutional priorities. Their argument that communities should own their stories—rather than having them extracted, simplified, or weaponized—is compelling, especially when grounded in lived e...