New paper co-authored by FORSAID partners explores how mainstream media covers invasive forest pests
A research paper on how newspapers, television and radio outlets present information about invasive forest pests to wider audiences was published in Volume 120 of the Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal in March 2026. Titled "On the incidental exposure of the general public to invasive forest pests through mainstream media", the scientific article has listed four of the participants in the FORSAID project among its co-authors - Bastien Castagneyrol (INRAE), Zina Devetak (SFI), Johanna Witzell (LNU) and Maarten De Groot (SFI). Their involvement reflects the paper's close relevance to one of FORSAID’s main objectives - working to harness citizen science as a tool for the early detection and monitoring of EU-regulated forest pests.
As a stepping-off point, the study observes that the surveillance capacity of official authorities is limited in urban forests, the type of sites where invasive forest pests are often first detected. While it is asserted that closing this monitoring gap requires active civic participation, citizen science can only succeed if the public is aware of the stakes and is prepared to act. In this context, the co-authors see an essential role for mainstream media in raising public awareness, prompting them to investigate further.
The research approach employed as a result targeted coverage of 14 forest pests across 15 EU member states, specifically by the newspaper, TV and radio outlets with the largest audience in each country. The co-authors delineated their investigation into each pest by inputting its scientific name, common name and any associated synonyms in the respective national language. Following that method of browsing through the mainstream media’s online archives generated more than 16,000 outputs in total, which in turn underpinned several key findings:
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A pest is more likely to be covered when it is either currently present in a country or has previously been detected and eradicated there.
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No clear connection can be established between the year a pest was first recorded by the European Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) and the year it first received coverage in national media.
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Three quarantine insects (Dendrolimus sibiricus and FORSAID target species Agrilus planipennis and Agrilus anxius) made an appearance in some national outlets despite never having been officially recorded within EU borders, suggesting that media can surpass official detection on occasion.
On the basis of these results, the paper concludes that the data is ambiguous as it hints at the media's potential to raise awareness ahead of outbreaks, but presents an overall picture of essentially reactive coverage at the same time. More generally, the co-authors argue that acknowledgement does not automatically translate into a clear response. They support this position by pointing out that factors beyond the scope of the study, such as audience values, story framing and credibility, also determine to a large extent how information lands. All in all, a recommendation is made for a more sustained, proactive background coverage of plant health issues as a way to help build public vigilance.
The full paper is available here. Browse all FORSAID publications in the project library.