Dry Spells, Drought, and Environmental Crisis: The Drought Feature in Australian Women’s Weekly Magazine, 1939–2019

Drought in Australia is expected but with climate change will worsen. Popular magazines can draw attention to and depict drought in distinctive as well as conventional ways, as shown by an analysis of content on drought in Australian Women’s Weekly from 1939 to 2019. That content, and in particular feature articles on drought, has established drought as a phenomenon experienced primarily by those who live and work on the land, promoted certain views of the experience of drought – and its significance for women – and advocated action of some kind. The features in later years also have placed drought in the context of climate change, including through prominent verbal and visual elements that draw attention to the plight of the environment. In these ways, the features illustrate the efforts made by the popular women’s magazine to contribute purposefully to environmental communication in the public sphere.