Research

how you gather information and investigate stories

Research is how you gather information and dig into a story once it has an angle. It means reading documents, pulling records, and following leads until the picture holds together. AI can summarize long material and find connections across files, so the question is how you check what it returns and where it might mislead.

Questions to explore

// use these as prompts in a workshop or on your own. There are no right answers.

What does your research process look like from first lead to a story you can stand behind?
Which parts of gathering and sorting material take the most time right now?
Where could AI help you read long documents or find links across many sources?
How would you confirm that an AI summary reflects the source and has not invented detail?
What sensitive material would you keep out of any AI tool, and why?

Expert voices

// notes from the journalists and AI experts who helped shape this kit

“Open-source intelligence techniques and AI intersect: AI can assist with geolocation, image analysis, and pattern recognition in investigative journalism.”

Lynn Khellaf, DW

“AI network mapping can reveal webs of influence across elites and corporations that would stay invisible to manual research.”

Walid Al-Saqaf, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

“Automated document analysis reveals stories hidden in large leaks that manual reading would never surface. These tools used to belong only to well-resourced organizations; now even smaller outlets can use them.”

Olaya Argüeso Pérez, Freelance AI Trainer

“Ask which knowledge bases a journalist actually uses: newswires, trusted sources they call all day, or archives they plow through because the information has not even been digitized yet. That is where AI support starts.”

Jasper Steinlein, DW

Things to consider

An AI summary is a starting point for reading, not a substitute for the source.
Confirmed facts should trace back to a document or person you can name.
Think about where research data is stored before you put it into any tool.

using this card

Pull Research when it is relevant and set it aside when it is not. Pair it with the other Journalism cards, lay them out on a table, and use the questions above to get everyone on the same page. Capture what you discuss on sticky notes or in a shared doc.