“Fan” is ........ abbreviated form of “fanatic”, which has ........ roots in ........ Latin word “fanaticus”, which simply meant “belonging to the temple,a devotee”. But these words quickly assumed negative connotations, to the point of becoming references to excessive religious belief and to any mistaken enthusiasm.
Based on such connotations, news reports frequently characterize fans as psychopaths ........ frustrated fantasies of intimate relationships with stars or unsatisfied desires to achieve stardom take violent and antisocial forms. Whether viewed as a religious fanatic, a psychopathic killer, a neurotic fantasist, or a lust-crazed groupie, the fan remains a “fanatic” with interests alien to the realm of “normal” cultural experience and a mentality dangerously out of touch with reality.
To understand the logic behind this discursive construction of fans, we must reconsider what we mean by taste. Concepts of “good taste,” appropriate conduct, or aesthetic merit are not natural or universal; rather, they are rooted in social experience and reflect particular class interests. Taste becomes one of the important means by which social distinctions are maintained and class identities are forged. Those who “naturally” possess appropriate tastes “deserve” a privileged position, while the tastes of others are seen as underdeveloped. Taste distinctions determine desirable and undesirable ways of relating to cultural objects, strategies of interpretation and styles of consumption. The stereotypical conception of the fan reflects anxieties about the violation of dominant cultural hierarchies.
The fans’ transgression of bourgeois taste disrupt dominant cultural hierarchies, insuring that their preferences be seen as abnormal and threatening by those who have an interest in the maintenance of these standards (even by those who may share similar tastes but express them in different ways).
(Adapted from: JENKINS, Henry. Textual Poachers:)
(Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York / London: Routledge, 1992. p. 12-16.)
Txting: frNd or foe?
If I ________(1) a pound for every time I heard someone predicting a language disaster because of a new technological development, I would be a very rich man. If I were a time traveller, my bank balance (8) would have started to grow with the arrival in the Middle Ages of printing, thought by many to be the invention of the devil (13). It (5) would have increased with the telegraph, telephone and broadcasting. And I would have been able to retire on the profits from text messaging.
All the popular beliefs about texting are wrong. It isn’t just used by the young generation: the vast majority of texts circulating in cyberspace are among adults, especially by and to institutions.
Only ________(2) very tiny part of text messaging uses a distinctive orthography. The abbreviations (11) are not a totally new phenomenon (9). Young people don’t use them (6) in essays, nor in exam scripts. And research is piling up that text messaging helps rather than hinders (14) literacy. Texting (10) has, indeed, added a new dimension to language use (12), but its (7) long-term impact on existing varieties of language is negligible. It is not a disaster.
The popular impression is quite the opposite. People think that the written language seen on mobile phone screens is new and alien. It has been labelled “textese”, “slanguage”, and a “digital virus” (15). It has been described as foreign and “outlandish” (16).
However, ________(3) most striking characteristic of text messages is the combination of standard and non-standard features. Although (17) many texters like to be different and enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood. There is no point in paying for a message if it breaks so many rules that it ceases to be intelligible. There is always ________(4) unconscious pressure to use the standard orthography.
(Adapted from: CRYSTAL, David. Txting: frNd or foe? The Linguist, v. 47, n. 06, Dec. 2008/Jan 2009. Available at:
Select the alternative which correctly fills in the gap in line 05.