"Here we go again!" — a theoretical exploration of cyclicality in journalism with Henrik Bødker

Date: 26 February 2025

Time: 15:00-17:00

Location: Room 2.04 Edinburgh Futures Institute, The University of Edinburgh

Journalism is ripe with content following natural, cultural and social rhythms. One approach to such rhythms is the notion of seasonal journalism, which refers to content that reappears annually at more or less fixed times in an updated form (e.g. articles on the coming football season). With the aim of understanding cyclicality as a constitutive aspect of journalism this paper situates seasonality in relation to other concepts on cyclicality in journalism: seriality, rituals, cycles, rhythms, waves, evergreen content and, at a more subtle level, (ideological) reproduction. Such notions stress that while journalistic products unfold in linear time, they are also tied into broader societal temporalities inscribed within cyclical patterns at the intersection of production, texts and consumption. The main thrust in this comparative investigation of cyclicality in journalism will consequently be centred around tensions between anticipation and renewal. Firstly, because such a tension is a key ingredient within “seasonally-driven narratives” (Dimick 2018, 709) in which “patterned arrivals produc[e] an anticipatory propulsion that drives … text[s]” (710); and, secondly, because such comparative readings may point to a more fundamental cyclicality through which journalism and its appropriation share features with other types of representation, e.g. film and music, which — through genre conventions and developments — constantly negotiate tensions between familiarity and renewal.

Join us for a special EEHN event where Henrik Bødker will present this recent paper.

BIO for Henrik Bødker

Henrik Bødker is associate professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is currently heading the project “Seasonal Journalism as Vernacular Phenology” (funded by the Aarhus University Research Foundation), which investigates the intersections of human and more than human season-related temporalities in journalism. His work appears in Media History, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Media, Culture & Society, Journalism, Digital Journalism, and Journalism Studies.

Here we go again! — a theoretical exploration of cyclicality in journalism