WSJ to deploy AI tool analyzing TikToks, podcasts for midterm coverage

Editor says journalists, not AI, will make editorial judgments

The Wall Street Journal outlined its 2026 midterm election coverage approach in a letter from Editor in Chief Emma Tucker, highlighting a newly built AI tool that analyzes TikTok and podcast content to track voter conversations. Tucker said the paper’s coverage is structured around three questions: who the power brokers and hopefuls are that most embody the moment in American politics, which communities and conversations shape voters’ lives and ballot decisions, and what cultural discussions foreshadow where the country is heading.

The letter, published Sept. 21 on the Journal’s politics page, frames the 2026 midterm as decisive for control of Congress, the direction of both parties and President Trump’s agenda, and a source of early clues about the political forces that may define 2028. Tucker’s coverage approach centers on “helping you understand the people, places and ideas shaping the country,” she wrote.

Tucker announced the AI tool as one element of the coverage, saying the Journal “created an AI tool that has ingested the digital world—think millions of TikToks and thousands of hours of podcasts—to help us track and understand what conversations are animating the electorate.” The paper said it will analyze shifts that could decide the election and explain what the shifts mean.

Tucker explicitly framed the tool’s limits. “This is not a poll and it is not a replacement for reporting,” she wrote. “It is one way to identify emerging themes, contextualize what we are seeing and explain the evidence behind our work.” The Journal’s journalists will retain editorial control, she said: “Our journalists will choose the questions, verify the material and make the editorial judgments.”

The coverage includes a “Rooted In” series, in which reporters return to their hometowns for context on economic, cultural and political dynamics. Chief political correspondent Josh Dawsey will report from the University of South Carolina, his alma mater, while politics reporter Sabrina Rodriguez will take readers to her childhood home in Miami. Other reporters will fan out across the country.

Tucker said a series of deeply reported profiles will examine the candidates shaping both parties and the country. Coverage formats will include written stories, video, graphics, newsletters, live discussions and election-night tools.

Across formats, Tucker wrote, “Our responsibility is to be objective, factual, balanced and clear about what we know, what we are learning and what remains uncertain.”

Tucker closed by inviting reader feedback on what they need to understand the election. “We hope you will follow the coverage, give us your feedback and tell us what you need to understand this consequential election,” she wrote. “As always, we thank you for the trust you put in us. We will continue to earn it every day.”