Mediated Fire and Distant Suffering: The Global Spectacle of Australian Bushfires in Nature 2.0

The present study collected 10,233 tweets from 193 countries regarding the Australian bushfires from June 1, 2019, to May 13, 2020. Based on the theoretical framework of spectacular environmentalism, distant suffering, and construal level theory, this study explores the spectacle of Australian bushfires in the context of nature 2.0. With the help of the STM, four conclusions are found: the Australian bushfires are a global spectacle co-created by media and audience using five different frames; the spectacle of the Australian bushfires is a metaphor for the end of the world; in the process of creating the Australian bushfires spectacle with media, humans’ relationships with animals, others, and nature have been reconstructed; and Web 2.0 technology does not exceed the limitations of time and space as expected. Social, spatial, and temporal distances still affect the construction of environmental spectacles.