ABSTRACT
Drawing from data from a 2019 Pew research study on TPRS (comparing US and international trends) as well as 2019 Nielsen findings on the types of people who write and read reviews, this study examines who contributes to the review culture and their motivations. Despite the hundreds of millions of unique reviewers each month, this chapter explains how the demographics of reviewers fail to represent diverse viewpoints and experiences, thus challenging the perceived accuracy of TPRS. Regardless of the missing representation, this chapter also explains why individuals are likely to trust TPRS even when they perceive individual reviews as false or inaccurate. The concept of “trust” is juxtaposed to neoliberal public relations. In doing this, the chapter provides numerous examples of organizations impacted (positively and negatively) by TPRS reviews. The chapter concludes by considering the ethics of how TPRS represent accuracy to readers.
