A Couple of Problems

Article by Paul Caplan on behalf of Media Trust

There are two problems with 'new media'. Firstly the word 'new'. And secondly the word 'media'. Sure the technologies are new, the gadgets are new and the rhetoric is new but fundamentally at its heart new media isn't new. The Internet's been around for years but at a more fundamental level it isn't new because it's just the latest in a line of ways humans have found to talk to each other and tell stories. It also isn't really a medium in the sense of TV or radio or even publishing. It's a communications network more akin to the phone lines. It's many to many not one to many.

The Internet is about communication and when I say communication I mean co-munication, conversation, story telling, talking to each other. The biggest problem organisations have in trying to harness the power of the Internet is they forget the basic lesson. People – customers, stakeholders, clients whatever – want to talk with you and the Internet lets them do it.

Notice this is talk with you not be talked at or by you. Talk with, conversations again.

Back in the days of the dotcom bubble when we wrote business plans on fag packets and entrepreneurs on scooters fought over domain names and built three impossible websites before breakfast, the Web was all about 'the new TV'. The Internet offered limitless space, cheap publishing and the people would sit around their laptops lapping up the content we gave them or better still sold to them. They didn't. They already had TV. It was bigger, better and more involving. What they did want to do was talk to each other. They embraced email and fell in love with text messaging. they found new ways to talk, tell stories and communicate.

We're just rediscovering that basic truth with people using their blogs and comments on other people's to develop conversations and relationships. They're using their video cameras and Garage Band to create their own film and music and then, most importantly sharing and remixing that content. It's no longer a case of 'my content, come and see', it's 'my content's out there, come and share'.

We have a choice. We can try and hold onto the idea that The Internet is a just another medium. We can hang onto the idea  that  we can 'deliver' the 'message' to an 'audience'. Alternatively we can embrace the logic of the Internet and see the potential in using the network to work with people, join in their conversations and work together on the stories that get our issues talked about.

We can concentrate on communications and the timless power of a decent conversation.

Paul Caplan is delivering free new media training to charities on behalf of Media Trust see www.mediatrust.org  or  www.icthub.org.uk