Madam, - Your decision, in answer to Ronan Farren's sense of shock (June 12th), that "it is now Irish Times style to treat 'media' as a singular noun when used in this sense", is to be welcomed.
It is a measure of how quickly a living language adapts and changes that only eight years ago, Robert Burchfield, in his revision of Fowler's Modern English Usage, considered that on this point "we are still at the debating table", but conceded that even then "it has followed 'agenda' and 'data' and, like them, is often treated as a mass noun with a singular verb or pronoun".
Where as renowned a lexicographer as Burchfield ventures, can even Mr Farren be far behind? - Yours, etc,
MAURICE A. O'SULLIVAN, Ashton Wood, Bray, Co Wicklow.