A definition of ecology is the “study of the relationships between organisms and their environment”. (Britannica, n.d.) This definition is relevant towards media ecology as a relationship between digital communication environments and their users. 

People, the users of these digital environments, are often influenced by non-digital environments with aspects of these potentially impacting actions and behaviours. Looking at digital environments, Strate states that “media do not determine our actions, but they define the range of possible actions we can take”. (Strate, 2010) I personally find this point by Strate debatable. One area I would debate is that in some cases, these media environments DO determine actions. An example of this is that a potential lack of consequences may lead to behaviours atypical of how users would usually interact face-to-face. Key examples of this are social media sites, with some sites requiring real identities and others encourage anonymity and pseudonyms. (Van Dijck, 2013) A prominent platform in which this anonymity is detrimental is Twitter, as this allows people to spread fake news and troll other users. (Ulanoff, 2018) This could be seen as an example of a digital environment determining actions as this anonymity isn’t really an optional feature on Twitter and therefore, these pseudonyms and their associated behaviour may be easy for users to get into the habit of doing. Alternatively, not every Twitter user uses the anonymity feature in this way, showing that this trolling may not be determined by the digital environment, but instead the website simply provides the ability to act in this way to some users, thus supporting Strate’s statement. 

Overall, media ecology can be seen as a potential factor in altering online behaviours of users, however it could also be debated that the media environment doesn’t necessarily determine the behaviours of users but rather provides access to these possibilities.

References:

Britannica (n.d.) Ecology. https://www.britannica.com/science/ecology

Strate, L. (2010) Studying Media as Media: McLuhan and the Media Ecology Approach. In P. Grosswiler (ed.) Transforming McLuhan: Cultural, Critical, and Postmodern Perspectives. (pp. 67-82) Peter Lang Publishing.

Ulanoff, L. (2018) Dear Jack, Please Kill Anonymity on Twitter. Medium. https://medium.com/s/story/please-jack-kill-anonymity-on-twitter-60ff79bf8ec4

Van Dijck, J. (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford University Press.