Media Scan

Russian Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been released after being interrogated for 14 hours without a lawyer, for two consecutive sleepless nights, and after paying a fine of €250.  She was detained for disrupting a major Russian TV news programme with a placard that read "Stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they're lying to you", BBC News reports. Previously, she had recorded a video with a statement explaining her protest, which can be seen below, thanks to The Guardian . Some interesting words you can find in this story are: to be fined, to be released, a live TV news programme, the set, to plead not guilty, a charge, to call on [the Russian people] to protest, to be prosecuted, to ban, the court hearing, to be denied access [to a lawyer], to stress, to come up with an idea, the courthouse, her whereabouts, the placard, to be ashamed, the television screen, this inhumane regime, a blog run by former BBC journalist, to praise her for telling the truth, to...

Pedro Almodóvar released a short (30') film in English, " The Human Voice " in 2020 which was acclaimed by critics all over the world.  It is a free and personal adaptation of Jean Cocteau's classic " La Voix Humaine ", where a barroque Almodóvar is interested in showing the boundaries of artifice and the connection between cinema and theatre, deceit and sincerity, lies and truth.  The movie is, basically, a monologue, where Scottish actress Tilda Swinton , in a riveting performance, displays her vocal versatility to disclose all the feelings of a woman who has been abandoned by her ex-lover and receives a last telephone call to sort out the last mundane details of their separation: she pretends to be cool and casual at the beginning of the call, until she can't stand her own lies any longer, loses controls and admits to her ex-lover -who is a "dweeb", in Tilda's words, ("an idiot", in Spanish "un memo, un baboso"), that...

On International Women's Day, Rappler , publishes the video " In Contested Cybercrime Laws, Activists and Women Are in Dange r" (6':49") about the repression of women's activism around the world.  Authoritarian regimes and dictatorships have passed cybercrime laws that punish feminist activists and other dissidents with imprisonment like Loujain-Al-Hathloul in Saudi Arabia, but also in other parts of Asia, like Myanmar, Thailand, Fiji, or the Philippines, where María Ressa, the CEO of Rappler   and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Peace ,  has been accused of "ciber libel" and has been jailed for writing critical articles against President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal anti-drug policies. At the end of the video, three women activists leave a final message: Momoko Nojo (Japan), Marine Maiorano Delmas (France) and Frida Guerrero (Mexico).  This video with subtitles contains a lot of legal vocabulary, but the subtitles can allow even B2 students t...

Professor Genevieve Bell is a cultural anthropologist, a technologist and a futurist. She is the head of the 3A Institute (3Ai) , at the Australian National University, where she is building a new branch of engineering to explore the impact and the management of artificial intelligence, data and technology on human behaviour . She previously worked for 20 years at Silicon Valley, leading a team of 100 scientists at Intel, as The New York Times reported in 2014 .  Genevieve Bell has recently presented the line of research in the 3Ai, which brings together experts in the fields of culture, technology and the environment, with the TED Talk below, entitled " 6 Big Ethical Questions About the Future of AI" . In this 14':48" video with subtitles, professor Bell speaks with a vey clear, educated, Australian accent and she uses academic words which might be transparent to a Spanish learner, but the cultural and engineering concepts she explains make the talk suitable for C1 ...

Dating is an art, a communication game where you want to show your feelings, but you do not want "to seem too eager".  In this post you can find two articles from The List, a "women's news and lifestyle site with a twist": Texts to Send After a First Date and Things You Should Never Do on a First Date . These two texts are recommended for C1 students, as the vocabulary is very rich in colloquial American slang.  Some of the less frequent words you will find in the dating and texting article are:  nerve-wracking, to feel a spark, super cheesy, flirty, cute, to ghost your date, to hang out with friends, to hit it off, to get the hint , whereas in the second story you will read  frazzled, tardiness, phubbing  (which is a new coinage),  a self-fulfilling prophecy, to feel upbeat/ over-the-top, to moan about, to whine, to brag, a faux-pas, daunting  etc. A full list of the most interesting words in these two articles can be found in the "Glossary of the Bl...

Indian Matchmaking is a Netflix TV show that has become a huge hit in India, but it has also stirred a heated debate about arranged marriages and the role of women in modern relationships.  Some people love the show, and they think it is "realistic and honest", while others find it  regressive and even "cringe-worthy". Here you can read a BBC News article on the story, and below you will find the video report version of the story with Punjabi subtitles (4':30"), where you can listen to Indian an American accents, and three more YouTube video links. This story is recommended for C1 students.   In the BBC News article, you will come across words like: cringe-worthy (informal), a [huge] hit,a  matchmaker, a [huge] buzz (informal), docuseries, to jet-set, bride, groom, a meme, to hate-watch (informal), in-your-face misogyny, casteism, colourism, [to cause] outrage, posh [hotels], closet, at stake, to leaf through [a database], to pull out, a [good] fit, to tr...

Geena Davis became a household name with the film " Thelma & Louise " back in 1991. Since then, she has had a long career in the movie industry and as an activist to denounce gender inequality in Hollywood.  In this interview, she talks to  The Irish Times  about The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media , which she launched and has successfully managed for two decades; about sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement; about being a mother in her 40's and about her career in general.  The interview is long and the language includes some colloquial, American slang, so it is suitable for C1 students. You will surely find new words and expressions like: Hot dog!, harassment, prejudice, a sweatsuit, athleisure, a bra, knickers, snappy, personable, pals, cosy, lockdown, a homebody, downtime, to snuggle, to wipe, to scrub, to account for, to make up the top 100 grossing films, far-fetched, endeavour, to focus on, to launch, a toddler, her jaw dropped to the floor, g...

Padma Lakshmi is an international model, the host and executive producer of the TV show " Top Chef " in USA, and now she is the host of the new food and travel programme, " Taste the Nation " on Hulu, a leading Disney video service, where she visits chefs in immigrant communities who have contributed to the American culinary heritage. Ms. Lakshmi talks to Terry Gross on Fresh Air  (NPR) about her childhood as an immigrant from India in the USA; the cooking tradition she learnt from and how her mother transformed it to create new dishes by mixing ingredients from other cuisines; her first steps into the modelling world in Madrid and in Italy; a car accident she had; the sexual abuse she suffered twice in her life; her awareness-raising work as co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America and about her family in India. The interview lasts 41 minutes, so it can be used by C2 students and experts as background listening while you are doing something else, like ...

You Don't Own Me (1963) is a feminist song that makes a strong statement in favour of women's emancipation in the second wave of the feminist movement (1960s-1980s), (you can find out more about this on this Wikipedia link). The song is quite easy to understand, here you can find a lesson plan for B1 students with a fill-in-the gap listening task, the full lyrics and a speaking activity which includes a discussion and an sing-along exercise to promote articulatory fluency. I would like to thank my student Cristina T. for sending me the video of this song. In 2015, one month after Lesley Gore died, the Australian singer song-writer Grace released a cover of the song which was a hit in the  music charts of Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Here, you can find a link to Grace's video and compare the two versions of the song:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEt7bnuO5y0