ABSTRACT
Alongside the growth of major TPRS like Yelp and Google Reviews, many industry-specific review platforms, such as RateMyProfessors, proliferated, demonstrating the applicability of the new review economy to nearly all facets of twenty-first-century life. These platforms developed from earlier ones, such as international websites Epinion and Deja.com. In short, the sites positioned themselves as a way for customers to take back reputation management power from advertisers and public relations practitioners. However, within 20 years intense conglomeration in the review economy occurred, as Google Reviews and Yelp bought competing TPRS to maintain dominance. In doing so, review platforms became not only popular, but also profitable, as platform owners and moderators turned to neoliberal labor practices and cultivated public engagement to transform organization reputation and practices. The second half of the chapter provides the results of a grounded theory study of TPRS by describing TPRS’ positioning, use of affordances, and business practices. This both helps to comprehensively describe TPRS, but also demonstrates how neoliberal public relations and engagement is used within these spaces. It concludes by introducing the importance of public participation on these sites.
