Thinking
Ideas worth sitting with
This is not a blog. It is a space for questions we are genuinely working through.
What this space is for
Journalism on crisis and conflict raises questions that do not resolve quickly. Questions about language and power, about who gets to tell which stories, about what responsible reporting actually requires when the stakes are highest.
This is where aidóni think out loud
Not with the confidence of people who have figured it out, but with the honesty of people who are trying to. We publish when we have something worth saying, when a conversation has left us with an insight we want to share, or a question we cannot stop turning over.
You will find essays, reflections, and ideas here, from the aidóni team and from the journalists, practitioners, and thinkers we work with. Some pieces will be sharp and argued. Others will be openly unresolved.
We think both kinds matter.
What we write about
How journalism shapes crisis and conflict
The invisible architecture of reporting: how framing, language, and editorial choices determine what the public understands, remembers, and feels able to act on. We examine systems, not individuals.
Open conversations and shared learning
Reflections from our programmes, podcasts, and events. What we heard, what surprised us, what remains unresolved. We share process as well as conclusions, because the process is often where the most honest thinking happens.
People, communities, and lived realities
What people-centred journalism actually means, beyond the phrase. Who gets centred in crisis narratives, who does not, and what it takes to report with dignity on communities under pressure.
How aidóni works
Transparency about our own practice: why we make the choices we make, what we say no to, and what it looks like to build a small organisation slowly and with integrity.
Articles
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Why we don’t “give voice”
And what we try to do instead. By Méline Laffabry “Giving voice to the voiceless” is one of the most repeated phrases in journalism. It appears in mission statements, grant applications, and award citations. It is meant to signal something good: that the speaker is committed to including people who are usually excluded, to making […]
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A room is not a conversation
On what it actually takes for people to talk to each other, and what we are learning about the difference. By Méline Laffabry There is a version of what we do that sounds straightforward. You bring journalists and NGO practitioners and community members into the same space. You give them a topic they all care […]
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Who gets to call it a crisis?
On a word that does more work than we admit, and what happens to the people it gets applied to. By Méline Laffabry At some point before publishing, a journalist has to decide what to call what they are looking at. Not just what happened, but what kind of thing it is. Whether it is […]
Further reading
If something you read here prompts a thought, a disagreement, or a question you want to bring into conversation, we want to hear it. aidóni is a space for collective thinking, and that includes the people reading this.