Why do so-called 'educated' people say, "The social media is a big factor...."?

[holacarinados]

The reason I used the adjective 'educated' is because I saw a comment on a website for book editors written by a book editor that used the construction, "The social media is a big factor in the spread of e-books." Now, I could see making an argument that you could put all the social media in one lump and consider 'it' one big thing, but social media include e-mail, blogs, facebook, myspace, just about everything on the internet, so to me it doesn't make sense to lump them together. The word "media" is plural.

[RAY G]

Custom-and-usage has long since accepted "media" as singular in some contexts, so it's a bit late to complain. It goes back at least 50 years. From the Oxford English Dictionary:

==quote==
1959 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Tribune 7 May 2/5 We feel the entertainment media has a monopoly on these available frequencies. 1968 Hobbs (New Mexico) Daily News-Sun 14 Aug. 27/1 The news media's reluctance to clean its own house. 1972 Times 19 July 13/6 Miss Allen seems to be under the impression that the media is confined to newspapers.
==unquote==