Illustration: Emil Hasnain for GIJN

Guide

Tech Focus Project

by Sandrine Rigaud • March 23, 2026

At the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, GIJN convened a full-day workshop on “The Investigative Agenda for Technology Journalism.” The session brought together 100 investigative journalists, editors, tech experts, and researchers from 50 countries and territories to examine the most urgent technology-related challenges and opportunities facing investigative journalism today. The discussions captured key priorities, challenges, and solutions and revealed a central tension facing investigative journalists: the “AI and tech paradox.” To dive deeper into this critical topic, GIJN has created this Tech Focus project, which includes key excerpts from our subsequent Investigative Agenda for Tech research report, feature stories on real-world techniques covering tech and AI, and masterclass videos with experts in accountability reporting on technology. It outlines a shared investigative agenda focused on accountability, while highlighting practical strategies for reporting on AI and technology in ways that are both critical and responsible.

Read the Guide

Chapters

Resource Guide Chapter

The Investigative Agenda for Tech and AI Journalism

Power has become more concentrated than ever before in the hands of Big Tech companies, whose economic — and increasingly political — influence has reached unprecedented levels.

Resource Guide Chapter

Radical Collaboration: Why It’s the Antidote to Big Tech

The co-founder of Rappler and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate shares practical insights on how journalists can respond to the growing power of Big Tech and the erosion of the information ecosystem.

Resource Guide Chapter

Confronting the AI Paradox: Potential Source of Abuse and Misinformation vs. Game-Changing Newsroom Reporting Tool

A dilemma haunts modern newsrooms. LLMs and related AI technologies are rapidly becoming key tools for journalists — and ironically their targets are frequently the very companies producing and profiting off of this technology.

A brightly coloured illustration which can be viewed in any direction. It has many elements to it working together: men in suits around a table, someone in a data centre, big hands controlling the scenes and holding a phone, people in a production line. Motifs such as network diagrams and melting emojis are placed throughout the busy vignettes. GIJN Tech Focus Project

Resource Guide Chapter

Holding the Power of Big Tech Accountable

Covering AI requires examining the power structures and decisions that shape how these systems are built and deployed, and who ultimately benefits from them.

Resource Guide Chapter

Gabriel Geiger Shares Tips and Tools on Investigating Government Use of AI

In this masterclass video, Lighthouse Reports investigative journalist Gabriel Geiger shares practical tips for reporting on how governments use algorithms and AI in public services.

Building blocks are overlayed with digital squares that highlight people living their day-to-day lives through windows. Some of the squares are accompanied by cursors.

Resource Guide Chapter

Making Tech Surveillance a Reporting Beat

While journalists are frequently victims of digital surveillance, they have also turned the scrutiny of spyware and surveillance systems into an investigative beat all of itself.

Resource Guide Chapter

John Scott-Railton Shares Tips and Tools to Protect Yourself Digitally

In this masterclass video, John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, shares practical steps investigative journalists can take to reduce digital risks on sensitive stories.

This image features 3 images of a street. Overlying the image are different shapes which are arranged to look like QR code symbols. These are in white/blue colors and intersect one another. The first image is clear, but the second is slightly more pixelated, and the final image is very pixelated.

Resource Guide Chapter

Investigating Location-Tracking Surveillance Systems

Phone-location tracking products are increasingly powerful and ubiquitous, but these same systems also offer journalists an opportunity to expose illicit surveillance and harmful procurement.

GIJN Tech Focus project - A collage featuring a vintage illustration of a woman’s head mapped with labeled sections resembling a phrenology chart. The mapped sections are overlaid by a neutral network diagram– depicting crisscrossing black lines. Two anonymous hands extend from the left side, pulling on two wires from the diagram. In the background is a panel of the Turing Machine with numerous knobs and switches, highlighting a connection between the history of computing, psychology, biology, and artificial intelligence.

Resource Guide Chapter

Investigating Disinformation in the Age of AI

In high-velocity information wars, investigative value lies less in disproving every falsehood than in documenting patterns, tactics, and systemic vulnerabilities.

Resource Guide Chapter

Karen Hao on AI Narratives Reporters Should Deconstruct

She highlights why journalists should question the dominant narratives promoted by tech companies around AI and other platforms, as well as overlooked angles for investigations.

GIJN Tech Focus Project This image shows an individual with orange hair interacting with a large, abstract digital mirrored structure. The structure is composed of squares in varying shades of green, orange, white, and black which are pieced together to reflect the individual’s figure. The figure's hand is extended as if pointing to or interacting with the mirrored structure. Behind the structure are streams of binary code (0s and 1s) in orange, flowing towards the digital grid.

Resource Guide Chapter

Leveraging AI and Technology to Investigate Power

AI is becoming part of everyday newsroom workflows and journalists are seeking ways to use it effectively, responsibly, and without undermining core investigative standards.

Resource Guide Chapter

Tips for Using AI as a Reporting Tool to Uncover Wrongdoing

From fishing quotas in Norway to legislative accountability in California, investigative journalists share practical, replicable ways to use AI in advancing their reporting.

Resource Guide Chapter

Gina Chua on 4 Tips for Innovative Journalism in the Age of AI

Chua encourages reporters to “get their hands dirty” by experimenting directly with new technologies and explore how AI tools work and how they can support accountability reporting.

Global Academy Webinars Resource Guide Chapter

Webinar: Detecting AI-Generated Content – Updated Tools and Techniques

During this session, Henk van Ess introduced new tips, resources, and investigative methods journalists can use to identify AI-generated images in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Resource Guide Chapter

Athandiwe Saba Shares Practical Tips on Investigating Big Tech in Africa

In this masterclass video, the Code for Africa investigative data journalist shares practical leads for reporters investigating Big Tech’s impact across the African continent.

GIJN Tech Focus Project, Cooling pipes hug data servers, extracting water from a shared reservoir while people collect water from the same source, set against a background of eroded soil textures.

Resource Guide Chapter

Investigating the Human Cost of Tech

AI systems are often described as “cloud-based” or “virtual.” This narrative is not only misleading, it actively obscures the environmental, social, and political costs of these technologies.

Resource Guide Chapter

Techniques for Investigating Data Centers

Expert tips for reporting on the impact of the resource-hungry data storage facilities that power AI — from water exploitation to greenwashing to flouting environmental regulations.

The image shows a surreal landscape with vast green fields extending toward distant mountains under a cloudy sky. Embedded in the fields are digital circuit patterns, resembling an intricate network of blue lines, representing a technological infrastructure. Five large computer monitors with keyboards are placed in a row, each with a Navajo woman sitting in front, weaving the computers. In the far distance, a cluster of teepees is visible.

Resource Guide Chapter

Credits and Acknowledgments

GIJN would like to thank and credit all the many contributors to this Tech Focus project, from the expert participants at GIJC25 to members of our staff.