ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews broader communication and media theory and its implications for the media. The idea of media shaping our reality is not limited to social media—nor is it new. It was first identified by Canadian communications scholar Marshall McLuhan, who argued that even moving to written words thousands of years ago changed human thought and activity. When news sources were more limited, individual sources and specific journalists’ voices had important influences on other facets of daily life. People whose needs and concerns were ignored by these limited news sources were less able to find mainstream channels for expressing these. Both traditional and social media can further convey information about quickly evolving behavioural norms. For example, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020, traditional and social media both worked quickly to inform people on needed behavioural adaptations to address the problem.
