Call me old fashioned. I still believe that “data” is the plural form of “datum.” Isn’t that quaint? In the Olde Days, that’s the way it was. But if enough people make the same mistake for long enough, that mistake gains legitimacy through some “common usage” exception. Thus it was that “data” came to be both singular and plural (and “datum” has largely fallen into disuse). Look up “data” in the dictionary and you’ll see that it is now both singular and plural.
I refuse to cave. I will never say “Data is…” unless I’m referring to that Star Trek android character played by Brent Spiner. (“Data is going to the bridge.”) With that exception, you’ll always hear “data are…” from me. “The polling data are on the flash drive.”
Now the same thing is happening with “media” — the plural form of “medium.” I was watching some technology show on TV and the presenter was doing a piece on the importance of backing up one’s data (which he, of course, used as a singular: “All your data is in your Mydocuments folder”). He was burning someone’s files to a CD or DVD — some sort of optical medium — and in the process he said to his assistant, “Hand me another media.”
Sad to say, not only has this plural gone singular, there’s even a plural of it now: “medias”. Ugh. Heaping injury upon injury, some people use “mediums” to mean more than one medium. It is obvious that the battle is already lost. “Media” has gone the way of “data” and then some.
I weep.