Media participation in everyday life

The phenomenon of ''O. J. Nation'' illustrates how information technology is part of the effective environment (how people actually experience our: social and physical surroundings) and how the mass media, especially the entertainment-oriented electronic media, provide a context and a format for an increasing array of activities, and shape them in a common way. The model for this approach to understanding how social life has changed is ''an ecology of communication,'' stressing how activity, information technology, and communication formats are related.