The new PRspeak: A magical, transparent conversation.

We all have our favorite words. Most of us try not to use them to excess. The proliferation of social media, however, has increased the use of buzz words exponentially. This year, it's "conversation," often used to refer to communication between companies and brands and the public. I'm also seeing a lot of "transparency," used by communications departments to convince various publics that they're revealing everything. Hmmm. And, the most recent buzzword is "magical." Steve Jobs, on introducing the iPad, referred to it rather breathlessly as "magical." Hey, I'm a big Apple fan, but can an iPad be magical? Not unless it can fly across the room unaided or transform, say, into something else, like a car or a Louis Vuitton bag.