A Practitioners' Handbook for the AI-Powered Financial Journalist
Description
This book treats AI and OSINT as everyday tools-useful, bounded, and always subject to transparent, human editorial judgment. A Practitioners' Handbook for the AI-Powered Financial Journalist is a do-first textbook that fuses writing craft with OSINT and AI-assisted workflows-so students and early-career reporters can produce accurate, human-centered journalism at speed. Built from classroom seminars and newsroom practice, it pairs clear explanations with assignments, checklists, and case studies to build durable skills. Readers learn where these tools help, where they fail, and how to verify, disclose, and maintain evidentiary standards. It also foregrounds a global, beyond-Western perspective, challenging dominant narratives and training readers to write for international audiences. Scope: Part I covers the essentials-leads and structure, interviewing, sourcing, fact-checking, headline craft, features, investigative basics, expert use, and bias awareness. Part II develops business journalism capability-macroeconomy and indicators, markets, trade, company news, private equity/VC/hedge funds, science/tech as business beats, business investigations with OSINT, AI tools in the newsroom, and crypto coverage. Each chapter ends with readings and practical assignments. Who is it for? Undergraduate and graduate students, early-career reporters, and instructors seeking ready-to-teach modules. Key benefits: (1) Do-first pedagogy-exercises that build muscle memory for interviewing, verification, data use, and story structure; (2) AI & OSINT, explained and bounded-practical frameworks and guardrails; (3) Business journalism, demystified-turn numbers into narratives audiences actually understand.
More details
Person
Wang Feng is the editor-in-Chief of FTChinese.com, the Chinese-language edition of the Financial Times. For the last decade, he has led a cross-border editorial team spanning London, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, directing over a dozen platform relaunches, product launches, and major summit events. With more than a quarter century of journalism experience, Wang previously served as an editor-in-charge of SCMP.com, where he oversaw the South China Morning Post's 2012 digital relaunch and founded its award-winning data journalism unit. He also established Reuters' Chinese-language news portal and managed a team of 80 journalists across Asia and North America. Earlier, he worked as an International editor at Caijing Magazine, one of China's most influential business publications. His academic focus spans digital transformation, investigative journalism, OSINT and AI's role in journalism.
Content
Reporting for a New World - Your Toolkit and Compass.- Introduction to News Writing.- The Lead and the Inverted Pyramid.- Planning and Pitching Your Story.- The Art of the Interview.- Fact-Checking Essentials -Verifying Information in the Digital Age.- Solid Sourcing- Building Credibility and Trust with Your Sources.- Writing Headlines That Hook.- Feature Writing - Crafting Narrative, Character, and Emotional Impact.- Introduction to Investigative Journalism.- Basic OSINT Skills for Investigative Journalism.- Finding and Working with Expert Sources.- Avoiding "Journalese", Clichés, and Jargon.- Bias, Narratives, and Writing for a Global Audience.- Beyond the Bottom Line - Introduction to Business and Financial Journalism.- Understanding the Big Picture - Covering the Macroeconomy, Forecasting, and Recessions.- Reading the Economic Tea Leaves - Reporting on Economic Indicators.- Navigating Stocks, Bonds, and Financial Markets.- Covering Trade and Trade Wars.- Reporting on Company News - Earnings, IPOs, and M&A.- Delving into Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Hedge Funds.- Covering Science and Technology as a Business Beat.- Following the Money-Business Investigative Reporting and OSINT.- AI Tools for Journalism: Embrace the Newsroom of the Future.- Crypto Journalism - Navigating a New Frontier in Reporting.