If people being pedantic annoys you, then just move along. Nothing to see here….
Ok, this has been bugging me for a long time. Shouldn’t the term “social media” be plural?
Years ago when I got started as a government media analyst, my good friend and mentor suggested that I tape the phrase “Media are” to the top of my monitor so I wouldn’t forget.
For some reason, though, I’m as guilty as anyone else in making the phrase “social media” singular.
I’m not usually a language prescriptivist, and I recognize that, in the long-term, popular usage defines linguistic norms. And, right now, it’s not looking good for “social media are”, with “social media is” pulling in four times the Google search volume.
So, just a gentle nudge to remind us social media evangelists that “media” is the plural of “medium”.
There are no “is” in social media (or at least there shouldn’t be).
(3i) » Back to basics | 22-Feb-07 at 9:44 pm | Permalink
[…] Ian Ketecheson nails it in a recent post, “Putting the ‘are’ in social media”. […]
Jon Husband | 27-Feb-07 at 3:08 pm | Permalink
Yes, that’s right imo.
Chris Heuer | 01-Mar-07 at 7:39 pm | Permalink
Funny you should mention that - I had been thinking about that phrasing quite a bit too, but not from the plural, simply from the fact that is socially mediated computing (in one person’s vernacular) and it is the medium through which we communicate and connect. Ultimately I rested on the term ‘media’ instead because of its more common usage across broader sectors of society - not about its pendantic appropriateness…
Point taken.
Ian Ketcheson | 01-Mar-07 at 11:00 pm | Permalink
Thanks guys.
We is Social Media guys. « Blog Campaigning | 05-Mar-07 at 3:11 am | Permalink
[…] Fortunately, there are people out there like Ian Ketcheson (via Tamera at 3i) to keep me on my toes when it comes to the English language. Ian’s recent post on social media being plural rather than singular is a lesson for all of us. […]
David Jones | 06-Mar-07 at 10:04 am | Permalink
Guilty as charged. I do it all the time and I’d suggest that a lot of people think they are using “is” correctly in the same way that a company is an “it” and not a “they.”
In my mind, when I make the error, I know I’m thinking of the “concept of social media,” which would make the subject singular. That’s no excuse for laziness on my part…
The grammar of social media at PR Works | 06-Mar-07 at 10:14 am | Permalink
[…] Ian Ketcheson notes that social media should be referred to as plural and not in the singular i.e. "Social media ‘are’ filled with geeks" vs. "Social media ‘is’ filled with geeks. […]
Ian Ketcheson | 06-Mar-07 at 10:21 am | Permalink
Thanks, David. Point taken re concept of social media being singular.
The more I think about this, though, the less it is about being pedantic.
I would argue that social media are so varied in their form and content that we need to approach them as a complex phenomena, with different social media manifesting different characteristics. For example, Youtube videos are a social medium, but they feel very different from a blog.
Youtube videos, for example, are hosted and aggregated within an environment defined by Youtube, but can be embedded anywhere. This enables a specific type of social interaction.
Blogs are a different beast entirely, in that I own everything about my blog’s interface and you participate under terms I define.
How do we link blogs and youtube to del.icio.us? We can’t do that easily.
Social media are hetereogeneous, and approach the concept as a singular definition limits our ability to conceptualize how they are changing the interchange of information and ideas.
Sheesh. I need a coffee. I’ll probably promote this to its own blog post at some point.
Bryan Person, Bryper | 07-Mar-07 at 2:23 am | Permalink
Media CAN be used in the singular form:
“The social media space IS filled with …” [the subject here is “space,” which is singular]
“The world of social media HAS transformed …” [the subject here is “world,” which is singular]
You can also say … “social media IS a fascinating field.”
And the plain old word “media” CAN be used in the singular.
“The media has turned out in full force today …”
Here’s a note on its singular usage, from dictionary.com:
“—Usage note Media, like data, is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago. In the 1920s media began to appear as a singular collective noun, sometimes with the plural medias. This singular use is now common in the fields of mass communication and advertising, but it is not frequently found outside them: The media is (or are) not antibusiness.”
And from m-w.com:
“—Usage note Media, like data, is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago. In the 1920s media began to appear as a singular collective noun, sometimes with the plural medias. This singular use is now common in the fields of mass communication and advertising, but it is not frequently found outside them: The media is (or are) not antibusiness.”