'It's not new media, it's a new relationship'

I stumbled across this gem from Jeff Jarvis while catching up with my feeds. It explains all too well what too many mainstream media outlets fail to get, and hence where they fail, when implementing what they like to call 'new media' strategies:

"They think this is 'new media.' And they think that’s something they need to try. (I would have hoped they’d have come to that conclusion about 12 years ago.) Of course, it’s not just new media. This should be a new relationship. It should be about discovering and joining in a conversation.

I saw another sign of this at the BBC the other day when staffers kept fretting about filling a blog, as if it were a show rundown or a blank page. I told them to stop looking it that way and instead to take the advice I’m giving my students: Find the conversation. Join in. Contribute to it — indeed, contribute journalism, answering questions, finding facts, fact-checking the ones that are there. But to do that — beware — you have to talk at a human level with other humans with opinions (who don’t want to talk to a closed door)."