Review Pollution: Pedagogy for a Post-Truth Society

Media and Communication

article

Emily West¹ 

[1] Department of Communication, University of Massachusetts Amherst

关键词: consumer empowerment;    disinformation;    online reviews;    platforms;    reputation economy;   

DOI  :  10.17645/mac.v9i3.4015

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Cogitatio Press

【 摘 要 】

Consumer reviews on platforms like Amazon are summarized into star ratings, used to weight search results, and consultedby consumers to guide purchase decisions. They are emblematic of the interactive digital environment that has purport‐edly transferred power from marketers to ‘regular people,’ and yet they represent the infiltration of promotional concernsinto online information, as has occurred in search and social media content. Consumers’ ratings and reviews do promo‐tional work for brands—not just for products but the platforms that host reviews—that money can’t always buy. Gains inpower by consumers are quickly met with new strategies of control by companies who depend on reviews for reputationalcapital. Focusing on ecommerce giant Amazon, this article examines the complexities of online reviews, where individualefforts to provide product feedback and help others make choices become transformed into an information commodityand promotional vehicle. It acknowledges the ambiguous nature of reviews due to the rise of industries and business prac‐tices that influence or fake reviews as a promotional strategy. In response are yet other business practices and platformpolicies aiming to provide better information to consumers, protect the image of platforms that host reviews, and punish‘bad actors’ in competitive markets. The complexity in the production, regulation, and manipulation of product ratings andreviews illustrates how the high stakes of attention in digital spaces create fertile ground for disinformation, which onlyemphasizes to users that they inhabit a ‘post‐truth’ reality online.

【 授权许可】

CC BY