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The 2025 slate of Oscar nominees recognizes many writers, directors and actors whose scripts and performances dont necessarily reflect their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, both white, co-wrote Sing Sing, a story about rehabilitation through art in a maximum security prison where the characters are almost entirely people of color. Meg LeFauve has now earned her second nomination for penning a script that gives voice the gamut of emotions surging through a young girl in Inside Out 2. Shes in her 50s. The director of Conclave, Edward Berger, its writer, Peter Straughan, and its lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, are all self-proclaimed lapsed Catholics. Yet they brought to life a political thriller set in the Vatican. The Brutalist was written entirely in English, but much of the films dialogue is in Hungarian, with two leads who are not native Hungarian speakers. Most screenwriters endeavor to craft characters outside their own backgrounds and experiences. But concerns about authentic language representation and cultural accuracy persist, and accusations of cultural appropriation and lazy research are commonplace. Emilia Pérez, for example, has been heavily criticized not only for unrealistic portrayals of gender transition but also for inauthentic depictions of Mexican culture and accents. The films director, Jacques Audiard, has even claimed his lack of knowledge of Spanish has been an artistic benefit. He says it gives him a quality of detachment to emphasize emotion rather than focus too strongly on the accent, the punctuation. His lack of interest in precise depictions of language and culture contrasts sharply with our recent research, which shows ample interest from practicing screenwriters in accurately representing dialects and accents in scripts. Wanting to get it right We surveyed over 50 current members of the Writers Guild of America, and they broadly told us that sensitivity to linguistic representation has increased since the 2010s. Several commented that theres been more commitment to hiring writers who represent the characters voices and backgrounds. Theres also more freedom to include diverse characters and worlds but a commensurate emphasis on authenticity and a higher bar for what that means, as one writer explained. Authenticity was consistently cited in our survey as a principal consideration when writing dialogue. Other concerns included scripts intelligibility, historical accuracy and believability. In most cases, screenwriters aspire to write dialogue that sounds authentic. But its not easy and often requires collaboration to get it right. Writers noted how theyll adjust their dialogue based on production needs, such as budgetary concerns, input from actors and directors, and feedback from dialect coaches and historical consultants. For example, spec scripts or noncommissioned film scripts are written before any casting or production decisions are made. The dialogue in these scripts will likely change once actors and other creatives are attached to the project. Recipes for capturing linguistic nuance In our study, we also reviewed screenwriting manuals published as far back as 1946. Manuals didnt begin to raise explicit ethical concerns, such as the use of inaccurate linguistic stereotypes in dialogue, until the 1980s. For example, many older films, such as Gone with the Wind, often used phonetic spelling in their scripts, with features such as g-dropping quittin for quitting to mark only the speech of lower-class or racially marginalized characters, despite the fact that all people, regardless of background, have accents. Writing in heavy phonetics is generally discouraged in modern screenwriting. There are practical reasons for this. Scripts are read before theyre seen and therefore must first appeal to the not so general audience of executives who buy them. As one writer explained, My script is targeted towards them. Take Trainspotting. Irvine Welshs 1993 novel about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh was written with heavy phonetics to capture the characters Scottish dialect: ah wouldnae git tae watch it. But the screenplay uses lines without phonetics, such as, I wouldnt have bothered. In this respect, theres a notable difference in novels and their respective adaptations. One surveyed writer avoids dialectal markers and will default to standard American English unless there is a reason not to. That doesnt mean the actors in Trainspotting should speak in an American English accent. Instead, screenwriters might simply indicate the use of language and dialect when describing the scene in a script or, as one surveyed screenwriter explained, make a note in the parenthetical that Brynn speaks with a heavy West Virginia accent to flag the work that the actor, dialogue coach, and writer will need to do together. This method is employed in The Brutalist. The film is partly in Hungarian, but writer and director Brady Corbet and his Norwegian co-writer, Mona Fastvold, wrote the Hungarian dialogue in standard English. They then used parentheticals to indicate any non-English delivery of dialogue. The films stars, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, worked with a dialect coach to hone their accents. Anora, which tells the story of an eotic dancer in a whirlwind romance, features characters who speak Russian, Armenian and English with varying degrees of fluency. Even though the characters frequently switch between these languages, the entire script is in unbroken English. Code-switching is simply marked with Russian, Armenian or English in the script before a piece of dialogue. But limiting oneself to standard U.S. English restricts diversity in the written dialogue itself. Some writers may want to use dialect or language to convey character authenticity on the page. Our survey respondents described this as flavor the strategic use of dialectal words or phrases to create distinct voices, with limited phonetics. Jesse Eisenberg, in his Oscar-nominated script A Real Pain, lightly blends American English with occasional Yiddish words to great effect: landed in Galveston for some fakakta reason, or crazy reason. AI chimes in Attempts at authenticity can become muddied when AI gets involved. When making The Brutalist, Corbet controversially used AI technology to refine the movies Hungarian dialogue. Some questioned the films authenticity due to the use of AI, arguing that nothing can be authentic if its achieved artificially. But the films creators, including editor and native Hungarian speaker Dávid Jancsó, defended this choice. They argued the technology actually enhanced the languages authenticity, particularly since Hungarians system of vowels and consonants is especially hard for nonnative speakers to capture accurately. Whether writers use phonetics or standard language, and whether producers use AI or dialect coaches, questions of ethics and linguistic authenticity will remain. Its important to research language choices and dialogue, and to consult the diverse speakers portrayed in scripts. These are among the many essential checks and balances that are becoming bigger parts of the filmmaking process. Chris C. Palmer is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University. Mitchell Olson is an associate professor of screen and TV writing at Kennesaw State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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We love our social media, and more frighteningly, we love getting medical information from social media. Almost 20% of Americans say they trust TikTok as much as doctors, even though 45% of the medical information on TikTok is false or misleading. Now, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, the problem goes deeper: Social media might be promoting the overuse of medical tests such as MRIs. In some circles, such tests have even become a luxury status symbol. What the new study found Researchers analyzed a cross-section of 982 posts from account holders with more than 194 million combined followers on Instagram and TikTok. They selected posts referring to five different tests, which have evidence of being overused and failing to improve health outcomes when used for people who dont need them. The tests included: full-body MRIs early-cancer detection egg reserve tests (which get used as a proxy for fertility) gut microbiome tests low-testosterone blood tests The researchers found that 87% of the posts mentioned the benefits of the tests, 84% had a promotional tone, and 51% encouraged the audience to go get tested. Only 15% mentioned the harms of using the tests, while about 5% minimized the harms involved. A mere 6% of the posts cited evidence, while 34% cited personal anecdotes. Overall, 68% of posters had a financial interest in the test they were promoting. [Most] posts were promotional, were from account holders with some form of financial interest in promoting the test, and mentioned test benefits. . . . These posts have the potential to mislead the public to getting tested despite the lack of evidence to support these tests and the potential for harms related to overdiagnosis or overuse, the researchers wrote.
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The Globeville, Elyria-Swansea and Commerce City communities in metro Denver are choked by air pollution from nearby highways, an oil refinery and a Superfund site. While these neighborhoods have long suffered from air pollution, theyre not the only ones in Colorado. Now, Colorado is taking a major step to protect people from air pollutants that cause cancer or other major health problems, called air toxics. For the first time, the state is developing its own state-level air toxic health standards. In January 2025 as priority chemicals: benzene, ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium compounds and hydrogen sulfide. The state is in the process of setting health-based standards that will limit the amount of each chemical allowed in the air. Importantly, the standards will be designed to protect people exposed to the chemicals long term, such as those living near emission sources. Exposure to even low amounts of some chemicals, such as benzene, may lead to cancer. As a researcher studying chemical exposure and health, I measure and evaluate the impact of air pollution on peoples well-being. Colorados new regulations will draw on expert knowledge and community input to protect peoples health. Communities know what needs regulation In your own community, is there a highway that runs near your house or a factory with a bad odor? Maybe a gas station right around the corner? You likely already know many of the places that release air pollution near you. When state or local regulators work with community members to find out what air pollution sources communities are worried about, the partnership can lead to a system that better serves the public and reduces injustice. For example, partnerships between community advocates, scientists and regulators in heavily polluted and marginalized neighborhoods in New York and Boston have had big benefits. These partnerships resulted in both better scientific knowledge about how air pollution is connected to asthma and the placement of air monitors in neighborhoods impacted the most. In Colorado, the process to choose the five priority air toxics included consulting with multiple stakeholders. A technical working group provided input on which five chemicals should be prioritized from the larger list of 477 toxic air contaminants. The working group includes academics, members of nongovernmental organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund local government and regulated industries, such as the American Petroleum Institute. There were also opportunities for community participation during public meetings. At public hearings, community groups like GreenLatinos argued that air toxics because it can cause cancer. Additionally, formaldehyde is emitted in some Colorado communities that are predominantly people of color, according to advocates for those communities. These communities are already disproportionately impacted by high rates of respiratory disease and cancer. Other members of the community also weighed in. One of my patients is a 16-year-old boy who tried to get a summer job working outside, but had to quit because air pollution made his asthma so bad that he could barely breathe, wrote Logan Harper, a Denver-area family physician and advocate for Healthy Air and Water Colorado. How is air quality protected? At the national level, the Clean Air Act requires that six common air pollutants, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, are kept below specific levels. The act also regulates 188 hazardous air pollutants. Individual states are free to develop their own regulations, and several, including California and Minnesota, already have. States can set standards that are more health-protective than those in place nationally. Four of the five chemicals prioritized by Colorado are regulated federally. The fifth chemical, hydrogen sulfide, is not included on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys hazardous air pollutant list, but Colorado has decided to regulate it as an air toxic. State-level regulation is important because states can focus on air toxics specific to their state to make sure that the communities most exposed to air pollution are protected. One way to do this is to place air pollution monitors in the communities experiencing the worst air pollution. For example, Colorado is placing six new air quality monitors in locations around the state to measure concentrations of the five priority air toxics. It will also use an existing monitor in Grand Junction to measure air toxics. Two of the new monitors, located in Commerce City and La Salle, began operating in January 2024. The remainder will start monitoring the air by July 2025. When Colorado chose the sites, it prioritized communities that are overly impacted by social and environmental hazards. To do this, officials used indexes like the Colorado EnviroScreen, which combines information about pollution, health and economic factors to identify communities that are overly burdened by hazards. The Commerce City monitor is located in Adams City, a neighborhood that has some of the worst pollution in the state. The site has air toxics emissions that are worse than 95% of communities in Colorado. Air toxics and health The five air toxics that Colorado selected all have negative impacts on health. Four are known to cause cancer. Benzene, perhaps the most well known because of its ability to cause blood cancer, is one. But it also has a number of other health impacts, including dampening the ability of the immune system and impacting the reproductive system by decreasing sperm count. Benzene is in combustion-powered vehicle exhaust and is emitted during oil and gas production and refinement. Ethylene oxide can cause cancer and irritates the nervous and respiratory systems. Symptoms of long-term exposure can include headaches, sore throat, shortness of breath and others. Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment, and as of 2024, it was used by four facilities in Colorado. Formaldehyde is also a cancer-causing agent, and exposure is associated with asthma in children. This air toxic is used in the manufacture of a number of products like household cleaners and building materials. It is also emitted by oil and gas sources, including during fracking. Hexavalent chromium compounds can cause several types of cancer, as well as skin and lung diseases such as asthma and rhinitis. A major source of hexavalent chromium is coal-fired power plants, of which Colorado currently has six in operation, though these plants are scheduled to close in the next five years. Other sources of hexavalent chromium include chemical and other manufacturing. Finally, long-term exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause low blood pressure, headaches and a range of other symptoms, and has been associated with neurological impacts such as psychological disorders. Some sources of hydrogen sulfide include oil refineries and wastewater treatment plants. Jenni Shearston is an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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