Geomedia Speaker Series - When forests become battlegrounds: Media, polarization and governance

• Karlstad University
• February 19, 2026
• Room: 12A226 (house 12)
• 14:00-15:30

Societies today face two interlinked and urgent challenges: implementing a green transition towards sustainability and preserving democratic legitimacy at a time of declining trust in institutions, science, and journalism. In the age of climate change and biodiversity loss, forests in Sweden have become the subject of heated media debates. 

These debates often reflect tensions between multiple forest values, among them the economic use of forests versus ecological functions such as carbon storage and biodiversity protection. The media amply and co-structure the debates and can enable particular interests to shape what the conflict is about. 

One example of this is the acrimonious debates related to the Church of Sweden’s forest inquiry, where competing frames structured problem definitions and plausible solutions. Rather than tempering disagreement, these framings accentuated polarization by amplifying adversarial cues and narrowing attention to win-lose stakes. This also had real-world consequences for the recent church election, where green parties gained ground. In forest-climate debates, journalism is also important – journalists negotiate credibility, authority, and relevance. 

Our research on Nordic journalists covering “green conflicts” shows how reporters embedded in conflict-affected communities face intense audience feedback and perform substantial emotional labour, which may lead to focusing on episodic citizen–politics disputes rather than the broader climate dimension of the conflict. 

Forest–climate debates hinge on contested evidence and values. It is therefore important to examine how scientists participate as sources, explainers, and interlocutors in legacy and social media and how this shapes journalistic practice and citizens’ capacity to reason across disagreement. Research ultimately needs to illuminate the dynamics of mediated conflict to understand how discursive power in forest-climate issues is achieved in order to provide insight into democratic deficits. 

Kristina Riegert is Professor of Journalism at Södertörn University (Stockholm). Her work examines how national and transnational media make sense of globally mediated events, in crisis and conflict journalism, as well as how the political infuses popular culture and cultural journalism.

Current work is related to media framing of forest–climate debates in the Baltic Sea region at a time of increasing polarization and disputed governance around forests. Her books include Politicotainment: Television’s Take on the Real and Kulturjournalistikens världar (co‑edited), alongside articles in leading communication and journalism journals.