Tech dominates our daily lives: from how we communicate, to how our societies make sense of the world. It has impacted journalism at its core, especially in the Global South. We believe public interest media plays a vital role in holding power to account in our societies – and that includes tech power.
Violent repression, systemic revenue and funding losses, and AI disruptions are challenging the fundamentals of how our shared stories are mediated, amplified or censored. Societal challenges – like the onset of AI-enabled surveillance and algorithmic discrimination – are also changing the stories that need to be told, and require urgent new skills to do so.
So what does it mean to support powerful journalism in this age of tech upheaval?
As a long-term supporter of the field, that’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves recently — and one that has guided a number of new partnerships. Taking an ‘ecosystem approach’, we’re funding partners to respond to that reality in different and complementary ways, aiming for an impact that’s greater than any individual grant.
Impact investigations for the age of algorithms
Take Lighthouse Reports, whose “open newsroom” model brings together hundreds of media outlets, technologists, and investigators to pursue complex, often cross-border stories. From AI-driven surveillance and arms tracking to algorithmic discrimination, Lighthouse is creating space for shared investigations that go deeper and travel further into the global media discourse — backed by a team that blends data science, open-source intelligence, and good old-fashioned reporting.
The Markup, now part of a merged newsroom with CalMatters, brings a similar dedication to impact investigations, with a different kind of expertise: engineers and data scientists embedded in the reporting team, reverse-engineering algorithms and demonstrating those system’s impacts in the real world. Luminate’s support aims to scale this internationally: building relationships with journalists around the world.
Building the foundations for safe and brave journalism
Alongside these frontlines of tech-focused accountability journalism, we are also making fresh grants designed to strengthen the ecosystem, enable collaborations and increase the safety and capacity of media workers around the world.
This includes the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN); with members in over 140 countries and a help desk that answered more than 2,000 requests last year alone, GIJN is building infrastructure for the investigative journalism community to scrutinise everything from digital threats to the role of AI in illicit finance. They do so in ways that centre the needs of journalists working under repressive regimes, or with limited resources.
By supporting the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network, we are helping build the skills, networks, and resources needed for journalists — especially in the Global South — to interrogate AI systems. From uncovering opaque ride-hailing algorithms to convening labour unions and NGOs around AI’s impacts, the Pulitzer Center is showing how media can help people, communities and institutions reclaim the AI narrative.
Finally, as part of our strategy, we also look for organisations that undergird the capacity and impact of the whole movement.
That's why we continue to back organisations like Media Defence, International Women's Media Foundation and A Culture of Safety (ACOS) Alliance that provide essential safety and protection to journalists and media outlets targeted for their reporting.
We are also supporting the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), a landmark initiative responding to the economic fragility of public interest media, working to help unlock new funding models – while convening media, tech and government leaders from the Global South to explore new models of fair value exchange between AI technology companies and journalism organizations.
Building the future of media to hold tech power to account
Each partnership reflects Luminate’s trust in organisations that are leading the line in their own way. Through unrestricted funding, we’re backing these partners to keep doing what they do best.
By supporting these partners and others around the world, we hope to see a flourishing global ‘community of practice’ of public interest journalists across regions, with emphasis on the Global South.
No single philanthropy or organisation can do this alone. But together, we can work towards securing greater legal and digital protections – as well as the mandate, resources and networks to produce journalism where technology serves – and doesn’t harm – our societies.