Beech Trees, Springtime, Cultures and Climates – Seasonal Journalism in Danish News Media from 1849 to 2023

Journalism is ripe with recurrent content that follows broader natural, cultural and social rhythms. Taking our departure in the concept of seasonal journalism, we conduct an exploratory case study of how Danish news media from 1849 to 2023 have covered the annual coming into leaf of beech trees. Based on a range of examples we argue that such quickly produced, and partly recycled material, serves critical cultural and social functions. In particular, seasonal journalism maintains national and local identities, fosters a collective sense of time and place, provides a space for the negotiation of continuity and change in relation to memory and data, not least as seasons have become less predictable and as such show how journalism negotiate shifting human-nature relations. Following this, the article argues for incorporating seasonality more widely in both media and journalism studies and as such draw on insights from environmental communication and environmental humanities. This can, we argue, help reveal nuances about how different media forms may connect audiences to climate change through locally resonant, seasonal narratives.