This chapter details the qualitative methodological framework employed to examine journalists’ emotional responses to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in media environments. Building upon an earlier mixed-methods study by Escudero and Zhang (2025), this research expands the inquiry through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 28 journalists from seven countries, ensuring gender parity. The cross-national design enriches the contextual depth and supports the analysis of emotional and professional experiences. Drawing from interpretive and constructivist traditions in qualitative research (Charmaz, 2014; Denzin & Lincoln, 2018), this study emphasizes a data-driven, thematic content analysis grounded in participants’ narratives. The selection of participants through purposive sampling (Bryman, 2016) and the application of cross-cultural qualitative interviewing techniques (Rubin & Rubin, 2012) ensures rigor and authenticity. Ethical considerations were prioritized, with systematic anonymization and informed consent procedures. This methodology aims to capture the nuanced affective landscapes that journalists experience in response to technological disruption, aligning with critical perspectives on emotional labor, digital transformation, and cross-cultural media research.