Silents & Social - Leaping the Hurdle of Communication

The names Dorothy Janis, Barbara Kent, and Mickey Rooney may not ring a bell to most of the people today (save for Mssr. Rooney) but these three folks are the last surviving stars from the silent movie era.

It dawned on me how Hollywood, towards the end of the Roaring 20s, was going through what PR is today - the transformation or upheaval from one known and accepted form to a radically different one. One purported to be better, yet, for the most part, untested. And, may I add, with many skeptics.

Our field of PR has the same growth pangs. Go back to the beginning of the 90s and take a look. What did we pitch? Newspapers, magazines, trades and broadcast. Online wasn't even in the picture and the words Social and Media probably never even sat next to each other in a sentence.

Hollywood was plagued with talkies that failed because the actor's voices were "funny," "didn't fit their on screen image," or just sounded stilted. Many careers were jettisoned from star to obscurity when their natural voices replaced the omnipresent title card. Crossing over, this trend continues today. We all heard something to the effect of 300+ newspapers and countless magazines ceased -- uh, went "silent" -- in the last year. Most met their demise for lack of advertising revenue, not lack of popularity. (Mark Penn cites in Microtrends that an audience of 1% is one that can generate $).

Social Media is today's version of the "talkie." But, I won't make any assumptions about it being awkward. Innovators, pundits and believers such as Chris Brogan, Mashable, Jeremy Owyang, Josh Bernoff (and since we are citing Hollywood, Tara Settembre's "When Tara Met Blog") have conveyed the merits, nuances and opened audiences from the professional and personal level for all readers. News is disseminated a lot different than even five years ago - INSTANTLY! It has become the in vogue way to communicate. It's fun, interactive, instant and to the point.

We are at a crossroads now where learning, practicing and actively participating in social media is now a must rather than a luxury. While sound movies replaced the silents, all forms of media since were complements vs. replacements. The TV was supposed to replace the radio. Now there is cable and satellite radio - and we all know how TV expanded. Sidestepping here for a second, Alexander Graham Bell's phone now is mobile and can access the Internet. OH, and you can also access the many social media vehicles while on the go. We morph, we hurdle and on to the next..,as it becomes part of the accepted mix.

Analogous to movies being streamed to your desktop, you don't have to walk down to the corner store and get your paper to find out what happened yesterday. Everything is instant. We may have cut out the paper boy down at the corner who yelled "EXTRA, EXTRA, Read all about it..." but we still have an insatiable quest and thirst for news.

Social media has cleared the hurdle faster than the silent/talkie transition period. We Twitter. We Facebook, We Connect. What's next? I don't know, but I know I'll like it.

I am wondering what it would be like to have Dorothy, Barbara and Mickey in the same room as our social media experts. (Future topic..Flappers Meet Generation X)...?