LLMs Enhance Emotional Expression While Maintaining Analytical Depth in News Writing

Authors

• Samuel Mazzone, Marquette University
• Jonah Harlan, Marquette University
• Larry Zhiming Xu, Marquette UniversityFollow
• Terence T. Ow, Marquette UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Publisher

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)

Source Publication

Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Source ISSN

9780998133188

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2025.278

Abstract

As the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly evident in automated journalism, leveraging its potential while mitigating the risks becomes a priority in research. To address this need, our study evaluated the performance of large language models (LLMs) in news writing. We tested 11 LLMs by having them rewrite headlines and content from articles published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS) between 2011 and 2023. The analysis and comparison of 3,623 human-written and 39,853 AI-adapted news pieces showed that different LLMs consistently enhanced emotional expression in headlines (Cohen’s d = .33) and in news content (Cohen’s d = .83). Importantly, this emotional enhancement did not seem to compromise analytical thinking, while some LLMs even improved the analytical depth of reporting. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed, particularly regarding the importance of high-quality training data and how LLMs can better assist journalists in newsrooms.

Comments

Published version. Published as part of the proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2025): 2257-2266. DOI. © Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Used with permission.

Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. 

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Mazzone, Samuel; Harlan, Jonah; Xu, Larry Zhiming; and Ow, Terence T., "LLMs Enhance Emotional Expression While Maintaining Analytical Depth in News Writing" (2025). Management Faculty Research and Publications. 420.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/mgmt_fac/420