<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>The aim with this essay is to specify and to describe such linguistic elements, which hamper readability of the Finnish news language at SVT: s Uutiset. The aim is also to give examples on how, with the aid of language cultivation, readability of the Finnish news language can be improved. Yet another aim is to write an essay that is useful in news reporters’ daily work and that the essay justifies and enthuses them to an active language cultivation.</p><p>The study is based on 224 news cases, done by SVT: s Finnish editorial staff between January 3 and July 1, 2005. The study method is qualitative and descriptive, and the study includes morphology, syntax and semantics.</p><p>The result of the study shows that the linguistic elements that hamper readability of news language are long sentences and long attribute chains, noun style, postpositional constructions, word order and cases, and statistical expressions. These linguistic elements influence how clearly, easily and concise news language is considered. Problematic seems also to be how sentences, constituents and words are to be emphasized and how they should be tied together in a cohesive and correct way. The linguistic elements that often occur in the material are common also in other text genres and are well-known within language cultivation literature.</p>

ABSTRACT The aim with this essay is to specify and to describe such linguistic elements, which hamper readability of the Finnish news language at SVT: s Uutiset. The aim is also to give examples on how, with the aid of language cultivation, readability of the Finnish news language can be improved. Yet another aim is to write an essay that is useful in news reporters’ daily work and that the essay justifies and enthuses them to an active language cultivation. The study is based on 224 news cases, done by SVT: s Finnish editorial staff between January 3 and July 1, 2005. The study method is qualitative and descriptive, and the study includes morphology, syntax and semantics. The result of the study shows that the linguistic elements that hamper readability of news language are long sentences and long attribute chains, noun style, postpositional constructions, word order and cases, and statistical expressions. These linguistic elements influence how clearly, easily and concise news language is considered. Problematic seems also to be how sentences, constituents and words are to be emphasized and how they should be tied together in a cohesive and correct way. The linguistic elements that often occur in the material are common also in other text genres and are well-known within language cultivation literature.

Abstract In my dissertation I study the language planning knowledge, language planning practices and language planning discourses of the editorial staff. In 2002 and 2004 I sent a questionnaire and got 232 answers via e-mail from local papers, other Finnish newspapers and Finnish Broadcasting Company. I research what kind of language planning knowledge the respondents have, how they regard the language planning of the standard Finnish language, what kind of language planning discourses the editorial staff constructs and what kind of language attitudes can be read from those discourses. The problems with language planning often relate to compounds and commas. The spelling checker of the word processing program is often used. One must sometimes bend the rules, e.g. in the language of advertising. The local dialects and common speech are allowed to be used with some definings. The language feedback is rare and often negative. In some places the language planning atmosphere is getting better. It also might be that there are no language planning principles at all among editorial staff. I study the language planning discourses in the context of folk linguistics analysing the answers with the content analysis and critical discourse analysis. My focus is in the answers to the question Why [do you consider language planning very important, quite important or not so important]? Up to about 97 % of my informants consider language planning either very important or quite important. The discourses of quality, interaction, responsibility, tool, emotion and cherishing are activated. The aspect of interaction and communication gets highlighted. It seems that education effects positively the attitudes concerning language planning, though the opinions vary. / Tiivistelmä Tutkin väitöskirjassani toimitushenkilökunnan kielenhuoltotietoja, -käytäntöjä ja diskursseja. Keräsin aineiston vuosina 2002 ja 2004 lähettämällä sähköpostikyselyn suomenkielisten paikallislehtien ja sanomalehtien sekä Yleisradio Oy:n uutis- ja ajankohtaistoimitusten henkilökunnalle. Aineistoni koostuu 232 vastauslomakkeesta. Selvitän tutkimuksessani, millaisia toimitushenkilökunnan kielenhuoltotiedot ovat, miten se suhtautuu suomen kielen standardin huoltoon, millaisia kielenhuoltodiskursseja toimitushenkilökunta rakentaa ja millaisia kieliasenteita niistä voidaan lukea. Yleisimmät kielenhuolto-ongelmat liittyvät yhdyssanoihin ja pilkkuihin, ja useimmin kielenhuollon apuneuvoista on käytössä oikolukuohjelma. Kielenhuoltoperiaatteista joudutaan usein joustamaan ilmoituksenteossa, ja paikalliset murteellisuudet tai puhekielisyydet saavat näkyä teksteissä tietyin rajauksin. Yleisöpalaute kielestä on vähäistä ja usein kielteistä. Joissakin toimituksissa kielenhuoltoilmapiiri on ollut aineistonkeruuhetkellä paranemaan päin. Toisaalta vastauksista ilmenee, että yhteisiä kielenhuoltoperiaatteita ei kaikissa toimituksissa ole. Tarkastelen aineistossani aktivoituvia kielenhuoltodiskursseja kansanlingvistisestä näkökulmasta analysoimalla sisällönanalyyttisesti ja diskurssianalyyttisesti informanttieni vastauksia Miksi [pidätte kielenhuoltoa erittäin, melko tai ei kovin tärkeänä]? -kysymykseen. Peräti noin 97 % vastanneista pitää kielenhuoltoa erittäin tai melko tärkeänä. Vastaajat aktivoivat laatu-, vuorovaikutus-, vastuu-, väline-, tunne- ja vaalimisdiskursseja. Vuorovaikutuksen ja tiedonvälityksen näkökulma korostuu aineistossa. Koulutustaustan arvellaan vaikuttavan myönteisesti kielenhuoltoasenteisiin, vaikka asiasta on myös vastakkaisia mielipiteitä.