The Unequal Lens network
ActionAid's Unequal Lens network is a collective of journalists, filmmakers, media professionals, communicators and activists working to challenge how power, race and inequality shape storytelling across journalism, humanitarian response and international advocacy.
Too often, crisis reporting and aid communications reproduce paternalistic, dehumanising or extractive narratives rooted in colonial legacies and unequal systems of power.
Unequal Lens exists to interrogate these structures and to support more ethical, accountable and community-led approaches to storytelling.
At its core, the network examines how the “white gaze” and broader structural inequalities continue to shape international reporting, humanitarian communications and public understanding of global crises.
This includes questioning editorial framing, authorship, sourcing, representation, visual language and the systems that determine whose stories are told and how.
Who is the Unequal Lens network for?
The network is intended for:
- journalists and editors
- filmmakers and visual storytellers
- humanitarian and NGO communicators
- campaigners and advocates
- researchers and media practitioners
How can I take part in the Unequal Lens network?
If you would like to sign up please email, Head of Media at ActionAid UK, Frances Leach: Frances.Leach@actionaid.org
What can members expect of the Unequal Lens network?
Unequal Lens is a collaborative network for people working across journalism, filmmaking, humanitarian communications and advocacy.
Members can expect:
- workshops and discussions
- practical resources and shared learning
- critical conversations on media power, representation and ethics
- opportunities for collaboration across sectors
The network is designed as a space for honest reflection, collective learning and challenging dominant narratives around crisis, conflict and injustice.
What is expected of members?
Members are expected to engage with openness, respect and critical reflection on their own work and the work of others, while contributing constructively to discussions and shared learning.
Unequal Lens encourages thoughtful engagement with questions of power, representation and narrative justice, while helping foster a community rooted in accountability, dignity and collective care.
Why is ActionAid UK establishing the Unequal Lens network and why now?
At a time of escalating conflict, political polarisation and humanitarian crisis, the stories told about injustice matter profoundly.
Media narratives shape public understanding, political responses and whose humanity is recognised.
Unequal Lens has been established by ActionAid UK as part of our commitment to decolonising systems and practices, strengthening global solidarity networks and sharing realities authentically through anti-racist storytelling.
The network brings together journalists, filmmakers, communicators and activists to critically examine how power, race and inequality shape storytelling, and to explore more ethical, accountable and justice-led approaches to reporting and representation.
Page updated 13 May 2026