Journaling probably refers to keeping a private diary, or journal. This could be done by a journalist, but really isn’t an integral part of the profession.

Freewriting would be throwing down every idea you can think up and pondering it.

Questioning is definitely a fixture of journalism. The journalist asks a lot of questions of people before writing an article.

Brainstorming is sort of like freewriting. You put down a lot of ideas that are already in your brain. It is done, but you have to have the facts first to do it, and the journalist probably has to ask a lot of questions to arrive at those facts.