'Clearer News Reporting – The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism' event was held on October 7, 2025, in Pasila Campus.
The event served as the final seminar for the AI-assisted news content targeting project, where the results of the project were presented and the use of generative AI in plain language news reporting was discussed.
The event was hosted by Laura Kettunen, Lecturer in journalism at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The opening speeches were given by Janne Kauttonen, Senior Researcher at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, and Mikko Villi, professor of journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.
The opening speeches explored how generative artificial intelligence can be used in plain language journalism to make news stories easier to understand and targeted at different audiences – not by producing new content, but by editing existing texts.
In the first presentation, producer-editor Pälvi Tammi from YLE's Selkouutiset (Easy News) discussed the practices and challenges of plain language journalism. According to her, the core idea behind plain language journalism is that the message should be understood after hearing it once, which requires short sentences, familiar vocabulary, and repetition.
Next, Laura Kettunen briefly presented the use of artificial intelligence at Selkomedia, standing in for Mia Laakso, editor-in-chief of Vantaan Sanomat, who was unable to attend. Juho Salminen, data journalism producer at Helsingin Sanomat, shared his observations on the use of artificial intelligence in editorial work. According to him, artificial intelligence facilitates the work of journalists and enables the creation of new forms of content, but its effects on the quality and trustworthiness of journalism are still being studied.
The event concluded with Laura Kettunen and Janne Kauttonen summarizing the results of the project and a final discussion. Among other things, the project investigated whether artificial intelligence can adapt news to plain language better than journalists, whether it can tailor news to make it more appealing to readers, and whether the use of generative artificial intelligence in text versioning can help reach challenging audience groups.
– Plain language news ensures that everyone can stay involved in society. The latest language models already support the adaptation of news texts into plain language, but artificial intelligence cannot yet replace the work of journalists, says Janne Kauttonen, project leader and person in charge.
The event was organized by Haaga-Helia's, Laurea's, and the University of Jyväskylä's AI-assisted news content targeting project.
In the main picture: Data journalism producer Juho Salminen from Helsingin Sanomat shared his observations on the use of artificial intelligence in editorial work.
Text and photos: Miia Huomo.
