Distracted Driving

With virtually every American owning a cell phone, distracted driving has become a threat on the nation’s roads. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2008, almost 20 percent of all crashes involved some type of distraction, and nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving a distracted driver.

It is clear that distracted driving is dangerous and potentially deadly. It comes in various forms, such as drivers doing one or any number of the following while driving: using the cell phone, texting, eating, drinking, talking with passengers, as well as using in-vehicle technologies and portable electronic devices.

NHTSA has identified three main types of distracted driving:

• Visual — Drivers taking their eyes off the road
• Manual — Drivers taking their hands off the wheel
• Cognitive — Drivers taking their minds off the task of driving

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that drivers who use a hand-held device are four times as likely to be involved in crashes serious enough to injure themselves. Based on research by Carnegie Mellon, driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.

Recent efforts to ban distracted driving have been initiated by public and private organizations as well as concerned citizens. Under the slogan “Put It Down,” the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is leading the effort to put an end to distracted driving. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood has encouraged citizens to become his Facebook fan and follow him on Twitter.

This past September, DOT held a Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, D.C. to examine the full spectrum of distracted driving across transportation modes: passenger vehicles, large trucks, trains, and transit. More than 250 leading traffic safety experts, safety advocates, and government officials gathered to define the problem and discuss how best to address it. The summit generated broad agreement among public and private sector organizations and policymakers about the need for texting-while-driving laws. Public surveys also confirm widespread community support for texting bans.

By the end of 2009, 19 states and the District of Columbia had enacted legislation banning texting-while-driving for all drivers, and a number of other states had laws covering specific types of drivers, such as novice drivers or school bus drivers. The  organizations that participated in developing  this sample law included Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CTIA – The Wireless Association, Governors Highway Safety Association, ITS America, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Safety Council, The National Traffic Law Center of the National District Attorneys Association, Safe Kids USA, and DOT.

As part of DOT’s continuing efforts to ban distracted driving and under the slogan “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other,” a distracted driving demonstration that focuses on law enforcement crackdown was recently launched in Hartford, CT and Syracuse, NY. The demo includes TV, radio spots, earned media materials, and web banners. The Media Network, Inc. produced the radio spots in Spanish and translated and adapted the earned media material from English to Spanish. Focus Driven, the National Safety Council, and several other agencies and organizations also are working on raising awareness of the consequences of driving while distracted.

On Friday April 30, 2010, Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios took a stand against distracted driving by launching a new public service announcement campaign and joining forces with some of the country’s preeminent transportation safety organizations to declare Friday, April 30 the first national “No Phone Zone Day.”

DOT, NHTSA, Governors Highway Safety Association, National Organizations for Youth Safety, FocusDriven, Students Against Destructive Decisions and RADD, the Entertainment Industry’s Voice for Road Safety, have joined Oprah Winfrey in the national day of awareness to end distracted driving.

The nation is well on its way to putting an end to distracted driving.

www.themedianetwork.com

New Media Tools Expand Clearinghouse Services

Lots of interesting things are going on in TMN’s clearinghouse business area right now! We just launched a mobile search feature for our clients in HHS’s Office of Public Health and Science. This feature allows people using cell phones and other hand-held devices to locate the nearest family planning clinic by texting a ZIP code to 368674. It’s the mobile version of the searchable clinic database that we also maintain for this client (found at http://www.opaclearinghouse.org/db_search.asp). For the launch, we also created some nifty little promotional materials!

Less than a year ago, we modified the web-based search site mentioned above to allow grantees, who are responsible for updating the information, to do so via the internet. This modification significantly streamlined what was a complex and taxing process. Now, any changes made to the data become live in the database when the changes are approved. As a result, the data in the family planning database can be kept much more up-to-date than was previously possible. Another exciting development is that our data will also be made available through clinic locator services at other websites, such as www.AIDS.gov, in the near future.

For a contract with the newly established Office of Adolescent Health, we created a simple online ordering capability. As soon as it became available, our orders doubled! It’s amazing how much the internet can simplify things for people. Last week, at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association conference, we learned that an astonishing number of people in the U.S. now have access to online services and information—mainly due to the availability of the internet on cell phones. And on the list of what people use the internet for, searching for health information is number seven, not far behind social networking and getting directions!

TMN Research Published in The Journal Of Women’s Health

The Media Network’s project for the CDC to develop culturally competent and effective outreach materials to promote daily folic acid consumption among Spanish-speaking Hispanic women of childbearing age for the prevention of neural tube birth defects, such as spina bifida and anencephaly, has been published as an article in the latest issue of The Journal of Women’s Health.

Our formative research findings from studying 132 Latina women indicated the need for a new brochure targeted at mothers to correct their misperception that the birth of a healthy child reduces their risk of having subsequent children with birth defects.  As a result, materials tested positively with all three audience segments using pre-post test design which demonstrated a statistically relevant increase in knowledge and intent to take folic acid.

The article in The Journal of Women’s Health can be found here.

TMN Enters the Social Media Era!

Welcome to the new TMN blog! We’ve been proudly unveiling social media initiatives within our company and this post marks our first foray into the blogosphere. Our blog will be written collaboratively by our staff on various topics that relate to our line of work, which is primarily social marketing and communications. Our service offerings range from Research & Evaluation to Clearinghouse Management to Strategic Communications Planning so expect our posts to cover a wide range of topics that fall under the broad realm of “communications.” We’ve pre-populated our blog with posts written by Felipe Benitez, one of our account executives – I hope you enjoy their informative nature. Please do not hesitate to contact us or comment on our posts. Thanks for reading!

Nhora Barrera Murphy, President & CEO

MultiVu Launches Interactivo (Hispanic) Multimedia News Release

My good friends at MultiVu annonced today a new service to reach the growing on-line Latino community. No doubt it will be a great tool to complement any U.S. Hispanic PR effort. Cheers Peter (McCulsky)!

¡Felicidades!

New York, April 15, 2008 /PRNewswire/ — MultiVu™, PR Newswire’s multimedia and broadcast PR company, in conjunction with its newly-formed Hispanic division, MultiVu Latino, today announced the launch of the Interactivo Multimedia News Release, the first-ever social media press release targeted to the U.S. Hispanic audience.

The Interactivo MNR (IMNR) is a Web 2.0 interactive multimedia platform that is unique among multimedia press release offerings because it features distribution and placement of video, audio, photos and text in Hispanic social network and news sites. From language translation to content development to web distribution, MultiVu Latino works with each client to create dynamic news announcements that are tailored to a Hispanic audience and delivered directly to news and online sources that are valued by the Hispanic community.

“The Interactivo MNR is the first communications platform designed specifically for companies and organizations looking to deliver high-quality, targeted multimedia content to the Hispanic market,” said Manny Ruiz, president, Multicultural Markets & Hispanic PR Wire for PR Newswire. “The IMNR’s strength comes from the unique combination of MultiVu’s industry-leading MNR production and delivery capabilities and the breadth of Hispanic PR Wire’s media distribution network, enabling organizations to take their messages to general web audiences as well as to influential media outlets and content providers that cater to the Hispanic community.”

All Interactivo MNRs are delivered over PR Newswire’s vast distribution network to thousands of media outlets, thousands more website and online databases, and nationally to Hispanic PR Wire’s network of more than 3,000 unique Hispanic news outlets. Additionally, IMNRs will receive placement on over 100 Hispanic media websites. Video content from Interactivo MNRs is further uploaded to more than a dozen Hispanic-related video sites including MiGente, MyGrito, starMedia, and Tu.TV, Hispavista, as well as mainstream video portals, including YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo!Video, Metacafe, and Blinkx.

Headlines and photos from IMNRs are also posted in Spanish for the first time ever on the 7,400 + square foot Reuters Digital Billboard in New York City’s Times Square. All Interactivo MNRs are also optimized for search engine visibility and enhanced for Web 2.0 distribution through embedded HTML links and social media tags, such as del.ic.ious, Digg and Technorati.

“The booming U.S. Hispanic Market is right now one of the most significant emerging markets globally and the best part of that for companies large and small is that this market is right in our backyard and ready for the taking. MultiVu Latino created the Interactivo MNR to provide companies with a simple, yet dynamic medium for communicating with the Hispanic community in a manner that is both compelling and understanding of the unique attributes that make the Hispanic culture so vibrant,” Ruiz said.

In addition to its flagship Interactivo MNR, MultiVu offers clients the ability to supplement any regular geographic distribution over Hispanic PR Wire with an Interactivo Basic. The Interactivo Basic includes press release and photo posting on more than 80 of HPRW’s 100 Hispanic online news partner sites such as LatinaStyle magazine, Catalina magazine, Diario Las Americas, Vida Nueva and El Latino de San Diego, among others; press kit posting in PDF, including fact sheets, biographies, newsletters, brochures, calendar of events, registration forms and more; a full screen, live preview of the Web site related to the press release providing easy navigation through a client’s Web site from within the HPRW press release page; text hyperlinks to relevant, search engine-friendly keywords such as company, product and service brand names; and a quote box, spotlighting a significant quote or sentence from a client’s story that best highlights what the story is about.

For more information on the Interactivo MNR or Interactivo Basic, please call the dedicated toll free “bilingual” number 866.580.5326 or send an email to MultivuLatino@multivu.com.

Pitching to Hispanic Media

A couple of days ago, I helped prepare Natalia, a colleague, for her Hispanic media pitching debut. After a brief chat, I drafted the following email:

 As we discussed, the following are some personal recommendations when pitching to Hispanic media outlets.

1.-Double-check the name and info of the journalist before sending a release. Do some research through Vocus (and Bacon’s) or by visiting the publication’s Web site, to make sure that you are sending the information to the right person and if possible read what he/she has published in the past. Look for topics, style, tone and interests, this will help you “sell” your story better.

2.-Send a personalized e-mail that briefly explains the press release and copy the text of the release in your message. Some journalists wouldn’t open a message from an unknown source if it contains attachments.

3.-Always include your contact number, Hispanic journalists always want to have a real and reachable person to answer questions.

4.-Use a catchy subject line that both grabs the journalist attention and provides him/her an idea of the content of the message. Avoid using simple or generic subject lines like: “Comunicado de Prensa” (Press Release) “Informacion importante de….” (Important information), you risk your message to be lost in the clutter, or confused as spam.

5.-Make a follow-up call.

-If you are fortunate enough to talk to the journalist, keep in mind that you will have between 30 to 60 seconds to catch his/her attention. Consider that a press release may not be a hot topic, so try to find angles for a possible story.-If you leave a Voice Message (VM) you will have to communicate everything in 30 seconds, let him or her know that you have sent an email with the information. For a VM, I would recommend using phrases like “This information would be of great interest to you readers” or “You can provide a valuable service to you readers”. Leave your phone an email at the end of the message (repeat it at least once)

-If you were able to talk to the journalist, send a follow-up mail thanking him/her for their time and letting them know that you can be available for questions or help while writing the story. This way you will have a contact you can rely on for future efforts.

6.-For some smaller publications, be prepared to talk for a long time. Some editors and journalist are real talkers, and will want to chat with you about topics that matter to Hispanics.

7.-Always smile while talking over the phone…and try to have fun!

Two hours later, Natalia had nailed down her first placement in Miniondas, a weekly newspaper in the Los Angeles DMA with a weekly circultation of 45,000 copies.

Adapting messages: Correct usage of Spanish Language (Part I)

Gonzalo Salvador (aka González), a PR colleague, just shared with me a presentation with great advice and insights that should be consider when adapting any English document or message into Spanish.

I. Assumptions to Avoid

A.-Not every person who speaks Spanish is an expert in the Spanish language.

B.-Not all Hispanics are equal. Usage of the Spanish language among U.S. Hispanics depend on different factors such as country of origin, generation, region of residence. Each group has its own vocabulary and its own colloquialisms.

If you are thinking about asking…

Q: What are the differences between Hispanics and Latinos and what is the right word to use?
A: This question could create a long discussion. Just as a reference in the East Coast is more widely used “Hispanics” while in the West Coast is “Latinos.”

Q: Is there a standard Spanish I can use?
A: No. But you can use neutral words and you can use the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) dictionary as a reference. Remember to always use language appropriate to you target audience.

II. Common Grammatical Mistakes

A.-Try avoid the use of gerunds (-ando, -endo).
Example: Use “salta” (to jump) instead of “saltando” (jumping).

B.-Use active verbs when possible: Try to avoid the translation of the have + verb form into Spanish. Example: He has jumped (el ha saltado), might sound better as (el salta or el saltó)

C.-Avoid commonly misused words.

Quiz: Are the following translations correct?:

Protester: Protestante
A: Incorrect. It should be “manifestante.” Protestante means protestant (religious denomination)

Facilities: Facilidades
A: Incorrect. It should be “instalaciones.” Facilidades is related to easy.

Aplication: Aplicación
A: Incorrect. It sould be “solicitud.” Aplicación means “to apply towards…” such as to apply force.

Act: Ley
A: Correct. “Acta” in Spanish is a document.

D.-Always try to use alternatives to gender.
i.e. Avoid using she/he (ella, él)

E.-Check for the order of words in a sentence. (Nuevo Carro, Carro Nuevo)

F.-Avoid using too many articles (la, el). (leísmo)
Example: Women’s Health Center as Centro de la Salud de las Mujeres. It is better to use: Centro Médico para Mujeres.
By the way, the comas (,) are always located outside marks. (i.e. “”, not “,”)

To be continued…