06.09.2026

“After reading through hundreds of articles about Molslaboratoriet, speaking with biologists and national park managers, and examining Danes’ attitudes toward rewilding, it has dawned on me that a large part of the challenge facing nature is about communication – not least the coverage by the Danish media,” Mette Guldagger writes in the report “The Voice of Nature”.

In her report, she examines the research site Molslaboratoriet in Mols Bjerge National Park which explores how rewilding can help restore biodiversity. Molslaboratoriet is specifically interesting, because it has become a media hotspot in the past years due to conflicting public opinions on animal welfare, rewilding and how we should manage nature.

In her report, Mette Guldagger investigates the role of the media in heated debates on nature preservation such as the one concerning Molslaboratoriet.

“I’ve thought a lot about how I can write about the media’s coverage of these nature projects without turning it into media bashing. Each individual report and article may very well be perfectly ordinary news that lives up to the classic journalistic virtues. But taken as a whole, something has happened that skews the picture,” Mette Guladagger writes.

During her fellowship, she dived deep into how journalists covers this area of conflict, discuss what this might mean, and suggest how we, as media professionals, can create the best possible foundation for discussing nature without contributing to the intensification of conflicts or fostering polarization.

She concludes by proposing three suggestions for the media:

• Report in a nuanced way on the major changes taking place between nature and our society.
• Describe a problem, follow up and describe an effective solution.
• Create engaging journalism that taps into readers emotions to change the way people look at nature.

Read the full report “The Voice of Nature” here.

Thanks to Novo Nordisk Foundation for supporting our fellowship programme.