Investigative Techniques
Updated Test of 24 LLMs for Geolocation
Bellingcat ran a series of geolocation challenges using two dozen popular AI platforms, with varying results.
Topic
Investigative Techniques
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Guide Resource
Reporter’s Guide to Detecting AI-Generated Content
This guide offers journalists a new detection tool and seven advanced techniques for spotting probable AI-generated content.
Past event
GIJN Africa Webinar: Investigating Revolutionary and Military Regimes
September 16, 2025
Information ↗
Investigative Techniques News & Analysis 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.
Resource Tipsheet
Investigating US Government — and Trump Administration — Influence in Your Country
The US government engages with virtually every country in the world and each new president can radically change its policy. Here’s GIJN’s updated tipsheet on digging into global US influence.
Guide Resource
The Oceans Investigations Guide
This encyclopedia from The Outlaw Ocean Project offers pointers for investigating ocean crimes and concerns.
Chapter Guide Resource
Introduction to Investigative Journalism: Collaborations
The rewards of collaborating can be huge for investigative journalists: greater visibility of your story, increased potential for impact and in some cases better protection.
Investigative Techniques Press Freedom
Mining Social Media and Visiting Morgues to Document Police Violence in Bangladesh
“Our priority was to reveal what the government was trying to hide,” says Zyma Islam about the work of her team in the weeks that changed her country.
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
Beginner’s Guide to Identifying Explosive Ordnance in Social Media Imagery
The rise of conflict imagery on social media has provided open source researchers valuable material to identify explosive ordnance.
Investigative Techniques Methodology
Investigating Russia’s Proliferating Use — And Supply — Of Attack Drones Against Ukraine
A cross-border investigation into Russia’s use of drones in Ukraine includes how drones are assembled despite sanctions, and cooperation with Tehran to produce UAVs on Russian soil.
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Using ChatGPT as a Quick Search Tool in Investigations
At IRE24, investigative reporter Jeremy Jojola shared his practical advice on how to use ChatGPT for contact searches and quick document analysis.
Investigative Techniques Methodology
Embracing Failure: The Importance of Learning from Your Mistakes in Open Source Reporting
Small amounts of failure in the open source field are inevitable, and somewhat expected. But they will also help you become a better open source analyst and investigator.
How They Did It Investigative Techniques
How Reporting From Six Years Ago Exposed a Political Fundraising Scandal That Rocked India’s Elections
Poonam Agarwal explains how her reporting six years ago ultimately led to one of the biggest political fundraising scandals in a decade.
Databases Investigative Techniques
Guide to Investigating Digital Ad Libraries
Digital investigations expert Craig Silverman offers a short guide to using digital ad libraries to dig through online influence efforts.
How They Did It Investigative Techniques
‘Smoke and Lies’: How Visual Forensics Disproved Official Accounts of a Deadly Migrant Center Fire
Lighthouse Reports journalists share how their cross-border collaboration investigated the deaths of 40 people in a fire at a migrant detention center.
Tipsheet Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
Reporter’s Tipsheet for Acquiring Free Satellite Images
There is a treasure trove of compelling visual evidence out there that is going unused by many watchdog journalists. Here’s how to find it.
Investigative Techniques News & Analysis News & Analysis
Lessons Learned from the Fact-Checking Collective That Covered India’s National Elections
How a fact-checking collective in India fought misinformation and deepfakes in that country’s recently concluded elections.
Investigative Techniques Research
‘The Cost of Free Land’: Investigating a Personal and National Legacy of Indigenous Land Theft
Rebecca Clarren’s investigative history grapples with her immigrant family’s success at the expense of their Indigenous neighbors.
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
Dissecting Propaganda: Using AI to Cut Through North Korean TV Spin
Accessing information from isolated nations like North Korea is difficult. Cutting-edge AI tools now enable efficient analysis of foreign language video broadcasts.
Investigative Techniques
29 Journalists Graduate from GIJN’s Third Digital Threats Training Course
The third cohort of GIJN’s online training in cyber and digital threats investigations has now completed, graduating journalists from more than 26 countries.
Investigative Techniques News & Analysis
Building Trust and Authenticity in Visual Journalism in the Age of Deepfakes
Photo editors and AI experts discuss the dangers of generative AI and other synthetic media to visual journalism — and what news organizations can do to reduce them.
Investigative Techniques News & Analysis
Exposing the Money Behind Environmental Destruction
The Pulitzer Center discusses how it has developed different methodologies to uncover environmental wrongdoing, adapted to the region, jurisdiction, and industry.
Past event
GIJN and iMEdD Partner for Introduction to Investigative Journalism Training Course
3 September–October 2, 2025
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Resource Video
Investigating Elections: Threat from AI Audio Deepfakes
Elections all over the world are endangered by a vast array of sophisticated digital threats. This year, when more voters head to the polls than ever before, AI-driven deepfakes threaten electoral processes everywhere, with potentially disastrous consequences for at-risk democracies. AI-generated audio simulations — in which a real voice is cloned by a machine learning […]
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Linking Shell Companies to their Secret Owners
At a recent panel at the 2024 NICAR conference, Karrie Kehoe, deputy head of data and research at ICIJ, offered a series of tips for investigating the true owners of shell companies.
Tipsheet Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips Research
How to Identify and Investigate AI Audio Deepfakes, a Major 2024 Election Threat
Experts agree that AI-driven audio deepfakes could pose a significant threat to democracy and fair elections in 2024.
Investigative Techniques Reporting Tools & Tips
How Journalists Can Practice Self-Care When Investigating Graphic Visuals from War and Conflict
Open source experts are faced with torrents of graphic visuals. So how can journalists protect themselves against harm from incessantly viewing traumatic imagery?
Chapter Guide Resource
Investigating War Crimes
This webinar shares methodologies for investigating war and conflict, and provide a briefing on the laws that govern what, in popular usage, are called “war crimes.”