Sizzling spring: the construction of seasons and seasonal transitions in Australian journalism

While much of humanity can insulate itself from the full impact of seasonal weather patterns, seasons remain tools for living that frame important recurrent events and thus help structure rhythms of life and, for many, livelihoods. Journalism plays a significant role in maintaining seasons as meaningful frames around, amongst other things, sports events, nature, and leisure. Such coverage has been termed seasonal journalism: recurrent content that helps structure the year and, increasingly, our relationships to a shifting climate. As past experiences lose some of their predictive power, journalism is engaging in new ways to make sense of seasons and their transitions. This article examines how five Australian news publications constructed seasons in articles published in August and September in 2023 and 2024, as these months mark the transition from winter to spring. A key takeaway is that seasonal characteristics, anomalies, transitions, and forecasts are increasingly becoming news events in their own right, rather than merely forming a backdrop for other stories. At the same time, more conventional seasonal content (such as articles about flower shows or swooping magpies) continues to appear. But even in these stories, there are tensions between anticipation and disruption, and with that, explicit or implied attempts to make sense of climatic changes. The analysis is based on 206 articles and draws on journalism studies, environmental communication and the environmental humanities.