Like the TV stations that head to a gas station to talk to drivers about high gas prices rather than working to find someone who understands the oil market to explain it, the survey allowed the general public to speak rather than those who analyze these trends professionally. So, here’s one communicator’s opinion on this question…

This reminds me of a legendary story in my family of my grandfather who, in the early ’70s, refused to buy a color TV, calling it a “gimmick.” The younger generations embraced it and, eventually, Zenith didn’t last but color TV sure did, evolving into today’s HD normalcy.

Something similar happened in the ’90s. AOL got us hooked on being online, getting instant information, sending and receiving email and sharing opinions in chat rooms. The vast majority of us don’t get online and hear “you’ve got mail” anymore, but we’re online more than ever, wondering how we lived without our information fix, reliant beyond belief on email and sharing opinions online in many ways. AOL’s days as the dominant Internet provider were temporary but what we liked about its service endured.

So what do we like about Facebook? Instant connectivity with friends and acquaintances past and present, sharing photos and videos, messaging without email, sharing and exploring opinions in real time, another source of news and information from people we know and trust. The list could go on. We put up with annoyances because, overall, it offers something that we think enriches our lives.

Facebook, the brand and the company, could be with us for many years to deliver that experience. Or another company or companies could do it all better and more profitably. Those are unknowns and investors will be the ones to place their bets. But the fundamentals of social media are no fad. They are a part of our lives and our culture and here to stay.

At issue is whether the National Football League knowingly misrepresented and misled players regarding the dangers and risks associated with concussions, in light of recent studies on the correlation between repeated blows to the head and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease discovered in the brains of former NFL players. 1,500 (and growing) NFL pensioners are crying ‘foul’. The league and its owners are communicating concern while indicating they too were in the dark until medical science indicated issues only recently.

Perhaps most concerning, though, is what is coming out of the mouths of current players. This week in a Detroit News story by Bob Wojnowski, Detroit Lions rookie Travis Lewis characterized one particularly wicked hit that fellow rookie Ronnell Lewis had put on another player in college as follows: “If you’ve ever seen a roach or something with its leg cut off and trying to wobble around — the guy tried to get up and fell. He tried to work his way to the huddle and he fell again. Concussions are never funny, but being on the opposite team and witnessing that, it was pretty hilarious, I’m not gonna lie.”

In an earlier but recent week, eleven-year Lions starter Dominick Raiola indicated to reporters that he’s ready for whatever physical ailments are in store when his playing career is done: “It’s totally worth it…when you sign up for this job, you know what you’re getting in to. Whatever happens is going to happen, whether it be short-term memory loss. Those are all the rigors of this job.”

And while it is not surprising for young, healthy, famous millionaires to move through their careers with feelings of indestructability, perhaps a new mindset needs to be communicated by these larger than life ‘role models’ to the next generation: That inflicting injury should not be a part of the game. That winning via bounties and vicious hits is wrong.  That they can be a part of the solution, not just an tragic benefactor of its ills.

All of the stations we talked to – local operations owned by national, publicly-owned groups – hear loud and clear from their audiences that news on TV in the morning, at Noon and at the traditional times of “5,6 and 11″ (plus 10pm) isn’t enough for the changing marketplace. They understand that you want information and video on your time and on your terms. They are working hard to develop new ways to allow you to do that – on your computer, your tablet or your phone, then share what you watch via social media.

Some barriers stand in their way. The technology is changing fast. Their news gathering resources have been cut in recent years. Some copyright and union restrictions may get in the way. Then there’s the balancing act between building brand and generating revenue, which is a persistent challenge for all.

In addition to their own websites, some stations are making videos of their news coverage available via YouTube (and benefitting financially from that). Others are exploring new platforms (that we plan to share with you once something is up and running). But all understand that they must meet consumer demand by a public that enjoys significantly wider access to broadband Internet.

Critics of the business charge that traditional news operations are too slow to react to changes in consumer media consumption habits. In this case, though, they’re on it.

Is that fair? I would argue it is not. On the other hand, there are precedents. The Doors were no longer relevant without Jim Morrison. The same could be said of Mamas and the Papas without Mama Cass or INXS with the loss of Michael Hutchence.

What is really important here is the group’s “essence” or core. It will be compromised but not irrevocably. Journey carries on without Steve Perry because of the group’s founder and creative mastermind, Neal Schon, who started it all with original lead singer Greg Rolie. The Who continued successfully on after the death of drummer Keith Moon (and later John Entwistle) because Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry remained at the group’s epicenter. Even Queen, without the mercurial Freddy Mercury, has succeeded with what are essentially tribute concerts, led by Brian May and the strength of the group’s music.

The Beasties were a true amalgamation of three creative geniuses who merged rock and rap and made it more accessible to the masses. With ample time to heal, I have no doubt that Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz will continue their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legacy – both as a tribute to their fallen comrade and as a reminder that rock ‘n roll (in this case married with rap), and those that create it, truly never die.

We can imagine the punch to the gut when hearing that they have to announce the airline is going to start charging customers $100 to “stow a bag in the overhead compartment.” As usual, it’s a decision made by executives in a conference room that PR people have to deal with out in the “real world.” Inevitably, it will be branded a “PR problem,” even though PR is just the face of the problem. That’s especially true in the airline business, which tends to be unpopular and unprofitable, creating constant communications challenges.

What we’re seeing here is consistent with what we’re seeing across industries and across the country in analyzing corporate PR. It’s just not a priority for top executives. They get retained and bonused based on “hitting numbers.” It’s really all about the finances, typically in the short-term. In this case, Spirit’s top management threw PR out the window (and under the bus, to use two apropos cliches) and focused squarely on the only thing that matters to keeping their jobs – making the money for the company that they’re supposed to make.

Until top corporate execs are evaluated on corporate reputation, this type of obvious disregard for PR will continue. Unless public backlash is so strong that it affects revenue and threatens the jobs of key executives, expect the $100 rule to stand.

For some, it is purely about hate. For others, including politicians focused on developing a platform based on polarization on which to run, it is about perpetuating old stereotypes for selfish means. In all cases, though, racism is about ignorance.

Just as bullying is in the headlines with a new documentary film, Congressional hearings and a no tolerance doctrine in schools, racism needs to remain in the spotlight until it is stamped out.

How? We can start by doing a better job of talking to and getting to know each other better. In school. In church. In the workplace. And in public forums. This past week at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s “Detroit Business Conference”, DPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts spoke on a panel discussing talent retention and training.  Always passionate and candid, Roberts said (reported by MLive) that old-fashioned ideas about who’s a real Detroiter is holding the city back as it tries to move forward.

“Detroit is a city that’s so proud of being a black city that it hurts us,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to get over this race issue.”

His words, for many in the room was like a salve for sore ears, an elixir for heavy hearts, an invitation for calm yet reflective contemplation and honest dialogue. To cure that which ails us takes both the conviction to speak out but also a willingness to listen – both without prejudice.

Recently, when analyzing reaction to the death of Dick Clark, I was reminded of one simple line from the song – “It’s interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry.” That pretty much sums up a phenomenon that may have irked Henley when watching TV in 1982 but is a fact of life in 2012, particularly on social media.

Regular social media users can attest, nothing “lights up a feed” like a celebrity death. Whether it’s an icon like Clark or a celebrity that most previously wouldn’t have been able to identify as dead or alive, news of a celebrity death spreads instantly on social media and elicits reaction like no other content on the Web.

We even see it on this blog. When Don Tanner (not Henley) has written about the legacies of Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston, our traffic picks up. In the hours after a celebrity death, it’s often hard to find much else on Twitter or Facebook, regardless of your connections.

I often hear from clients and others who want to know why traditional media focuses so much on death and celebrities. Well, combine the two and see what happens on social media, with the vast majority of content created and distributed by consumers, not by media organizations.

As someone who, as Henley sang, once made “my living off the evening news,” I have seen instances where news decisions that are really made to save money or drive quick ratings are rationalized by “it’s what people want.” But, in this case, human nature proves that when we, as a society, look in the mirror, we see a culture that really believes “it’s interesting when people die – give us dirty laundry.”

Through our respective work in print and broadcast journalism prior to our PR days, our firm’s founders have been fortunate to work and interact with many, many talented (even “Hall of Fame”) broadcasters as colleagues, associates and, in many cases, friends. That is why it was so rewarding, in recent days, to reconnect over lunch with Detroit radio legend Lynne Woodison. Though we email often and lunch from time to time, we had fallen out of touch in recent months; I soon found out why.

Late last year, her son Colin was in a horrific car crash in Nashville, where he resides. In the hospital for many weeks with a broken pelvis among the physical trauma he experienced, he next bore many more weeks of rehab where he very gradually progressed from hospital bed to wheelchair to cane to, only very recently, walking again on his own en route to a full recovery. With him throughout the ordeal was his mother.

Lynne, I had learned, had relocated to Nashville for some time in order to do what she could to nurse Colin back to health along with helping to keep his successful business venture, CrackedMacScreen.com running.  Anchored on the east cost in Washington, D.C., by Colin’s brother and co-founder Trevor, the company has continued to grow in clients and revenue, counting among its devotees A-List musicians and Obama-administration officials who appreciate the efficiencies and security afforded by the customer service- focused Mac screen repair service.

Back in Detroit in recent days with the health of her son assured, Lynne is weighing next steps in her storied career. Might that include radio? Visit her Facebook page and you will experience scores of fans and devotees urging her return.  In my opinion, Clear Channel’s new rocker, 106.7 “The D” (in need of live Detroit talent) should have her on speed dial.  And what about WDET or “The River”? Just think of the renewed interest her presence would bring to those properties.  To say nothing of WJR, which already uses Lynne’s voice on their station identifiers, bringing back a music show (something they dabbled with in a recent year) to add a new programming wrinkle.

For Woodison, her family healthy and priorities always in order, anything is possible in 2012.

This has created a misunderstanding that hurts us all in this new environment. Too often, clients act as if we go back to the office, unlock a mystery door and then turn on the “machine” we keep in the back room. It’s as if all they have to do is sign a contract and the “PR machine” kicks into gear on their behalf.

But there’s no mystery door to a back room. And there’s no such thing as a literal PR machine. It’s time for clients to understand that the best results come from collaborative processes.

Here are a couple of examples of the machine myth. Several years ago, I worked on a team that was representing a medium-size professional services firm. A few months into the engagement, one of the senior partners was upset that he hadn’t “gotten any press.” When I explained that was because he had not discussed with us any of his cases, or his opinions, or his expertise or anything interesting or newsworthy, he didn’t want to hear it. I explained the process of creating PR opportunities but he wasn’t interested in that. He exclaimed “we’re paying you to get us press.” He wanted the machine and, unfortunately, his attitude spread through the firm, as negativity tends to do, causing an adversarial relationship.

More recently, we were hired to create messaging for a private business having a challenge differentiating itself from its relatively well-packaged competition. At the onset of the engagement, we explained how the messaging process should work. We facilitated a meeting of the company’s senior staff for them to explain who they are, what they do and how they are different. We reviewed their existing materials as well as rough copy, written by one of their partners, for use on the Web or in brochures. We next presented a draft, labeled as such, of boiled-down (from meeting notes and dozens of pages into a two-page document) key message points, based on what we had seen so far, as a starting point for discussion as part of the defined (and proven) process.

Company leadership was not happy with what they received from us. We were told “you just spit back what we gave you” and “there are several errors.” They apparently expected that after one meeting and a review of materials that we would be able to completely brand their company and know their business inside-out. They refused to participate in the rest of the process and sought “another direction.” In other words, they wanted a machine.

So, to bust the myth once and for all, firms don’t have a machine to do the work. But the good ones do have talented, experienced, passionate people who, working with our clients, can provide the human touch that is crucial to long term relationships and success.

Two years ago, for the first time in a decade, I took a vacation that was a getaway in every sense. I wrote this post about how difficult it was, as an admitted information junkie, to go “cold turkey” with no cell phone and no email for a full week.

A year later, I did it again. And last week, I did it for a third time in three years. In conversation, I have become something of an evangelist for a week “unplugged.” So please allow me to make the case here.

Americans get fewer vacation days than most of the rest of the industrialized world. According to the World Tourist Organization, Americans take 13 days per year of paid vacation time, on average. Japan averages 25, Canada 26, the U.K. 28, Germany 35 and
Italy averages 42 days. So, it’s up to each of us to make the most of what our culture allows.

For 51 weeks of the year, wherever I am, I rarely go more than a few hours without checking email. It’s tough, frankly, for me to go more than a few minutes, if not otherwise occupied, without getting a news or sports fix via Twitter or another app. Really, it doesn’t take much down time (a line in the grocery store, a walk from a parking space, some time on hold, for just a few examples) to have me reaching for my phone. I make an effort every day to answer emails and voicemails same-day. It’s just who am am or, maybe, who I have become. While I am essentially addicted to the steady stream, I usually enjoy it, recognizing that it can divide my attention and cause some stress during “off” hours.

So, for one week of the year, originally because of the prohibitive cost on a cruise ship but now out of bona fide desire, it has become essential to turn off the laptop and put the phone in the room safe and focus attention on family, experiencing new places, relaxing and reading books.

To make it possible, I took steps ahead of time, preparing with clients and the Tanner Friedman team and also picked a week when many would be vacationing. Those factors helped me come back to limited email and client objectives met in my absence. I’m now back refreshed and ready for the next 51 weeks (with some more vacation days, of sorts, thrown in).

If I can do it for a week, then you can, and should, do it for a week.