Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Verify Bystander Video
From the Minneapolis shootings to the Guthrie kidnapping, visual investigation skills are now mandatory. Here’s how to do it.
Stories
449
posts
Clear filters ×
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Investigating Right-Wing Influencers and Podcasters
Journalists have found popular right-wing podcasters hard to cover, but expert journalists at the 2026 NICAR conference shared techniques for digging into this cohort’s global influence.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Conducting Investigations About Venezuela
GIJN spoke with three leading, award-winning investigative journalists from Venezuela about practical tips for keeping sources secure while reporting from inside and outside the country.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Choosing Climate Stories that Make an Impact
Given widespread misinformation and climate skepticism, veteran environmental reporters offer case studies and best practices for pursuing impactful topics of climate investigations.
Editor's Picks Reporting Tools & Tips
GIJN’s Top Investigative Tools of 2025
In a year that kleptocracy and attacks on independent media spiked, investigative reporters harnessed a mix of new databases and innovative tools to hold bad actors accountable.
Reporting Tools & Tips
‘Too Close to Home’: Handling the Challenges of Investigations with a Personal Connection
Watchdog reporters at AIJC offered tips for navigating the professional, emotional, and ethical complications of reporting stories that intersect with your personal life.
GIJC25 Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Investigate Pharmaceutical Oligopolies
At GIJC25, Peruvian investigative journalist Fabiola Torres showed reporters how to uncover the systems behind pharma monopolies, and how to connect market structures to human impact.
GIJC25 Reporting Tools & Tips
Chasing Oligarchs Across Borders
Journalists detailed how they build dossiers on oligarchs, mine corporate and sanctions databases, and use leaks – all while managing legal and security risks.
Reporting Tools & Tips
New Tools to Reduce the Risks for Whistleblowers
Two new digital platforms seek to solve many of the problems and vulnerabilities that prevent whistleblowers from coming forward.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Investigating and Reporting on Ethno-Religious Conflicts Responsibly and Ethically
Reporters, editors, and experts who cover regions with longstanding tensions or conflict between communities share tips and best practices for reporting responsibly — and safely.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Researching Massive Water Consumption by Data Centers
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee offer insights into sources and techniques for investigating water usage by major tech companies’ data centers.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips to Investigate Climate Change Impacts in an Era of Science Denialism
As oligarchs and populist governments ratchet back the gathering and dissemination of climate-related information, journalists can use these techniques to find relevant sources and track impact.
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
How Newsrooms Are Using AI Chatbots to Leverage Their Own Reporting — and Build Trust
From the Philippines to the UK, a number of major newsrooms have created their own AI chatbots designed to respond using only that site’s trusted reporting archive and vetted databases as source material.
Reporting Tools & Tips
5 Tips for Slashing FOIA Costs (Including How One Reporter Lowered a Records Request Fee from $2,800 to Just $29)
With a little research and negotiation, reporters can slash the cost of obtaining records bundles and speed up the government’s response in the process.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Use Germany’s New Lobby Register as an Investigative Tool
The German Bundestag’s new lobby register is a trove of data for investigative journalists reporting on influence and money in federal politics.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Investigating New Oligarchs and Novel Corruption Ploys
The oligarchs of the world have a surprising amount in common. Here are tips and resources for investigating their hidden assets and to finding out who is helping them.
Reporting Tools & Tips
This Reporter Exposed the Civilian Toll of US Airstrikes. Her Warning: Be Ready for a More Hostile World
Azmat Khan is known for her rigorous reporting on civilian casualties from US airstrikes, and for exposing systemic failures in military and government accountability.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Turning Unreadable Text Into Evidence
Whether it’s extracting names from footage, decoding social media posts, or reading distorted text in documents, Henk van Ess explains how free digital tools can take on these investigative tasks.
Reporting Tools & Tips
5 Free Open Source Digital Tools to Combat Disinformation
Developed by Brazilian media outlets in late 2024, the solutions are available free of charge to any journalistic organization inside and outside Brazil.
Methodology Reporting Tools & Tips
Passports Are Key to Uncovering Offshore Secrecy — We Use Machine Learning to Find Them Efficiently
Passports can help unlock secret ownership of offshore companies, but finding them is often challenging. At ICIJ, we decided to build a new detection tool to speed up this process.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Essential Open Source Tools for Journalists Investigating Air Pollution
Here is a list of open source data tools that journalists can utilize to track air pollution, uncover its sources, and reveal the corporate networks responsible.
Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips
As Trump White House Disappears US Environmental Data, Reporters Can Turn to OECD
The wide range of international environmental data that the OECD offers, though often Eurocentric, is still extensive in scope and comparatively reliable.
How They Did It Reporting Tools & Tips
Running Into Open Secrets: How to Investigate Using the Strava Fitness App
Journalists around the world have mined the Strava fitness app to pinpoint secret military bases and track the movements of world leaders.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Celebrating a Decade of Reveal — The Show That Helped Investigative Radio Go Mainstream
Ten years on, those behind Reveal, the award-winning public radio show and podcast, talk about the investigations that have defined their program.
Climate Reporting Tools & Tips
New Angle for Reporting on Oil and Gas Industry — Radioactive Waste
The lack of regulatory oversight of radioactive waste in the oil and gas industry has created an environment ripe for some extraordinary science and environmental journalism.
Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips
Telltale Data Signs of Bogus Scientific Papers and Fraudulent Academic Research
Two scientists and an editor spent six months investigating so-called paper mills, which churn out bogus scientific papers that impede actual research on lifesaving breakthroughs.
Reporting Tools & Tips Research
How Planespotter and Other Transportation Enthusiast Sites Can Unlock Investigations
At NICAR25, data reporters detailed how amateur transportation enthusiasts are a valuable, media-friendly, and underused source of critical tips and information for investigations.
Data Journalism Reporting Tools & Tips
From NICAR25, Four Free Cutting Edge and Time-Saving Investigative Data Tools
GIJN shares some of the no-cost, easy-to-use data tools that NICAR25 conference panelists described as surprisingly useful but unknown by investigative reporters.