1

1. Critical context
Criticism and reviews – how reviews are integral to
modern life.
By jamescooper-abel18/11/2020
Reviews are vital in decision making for people in the modern day as most people will
look at a review of a product, hotel, or person before either buying, staying, or going
to or hiring someone.
“Reviews can be important for organisations in terms of promoting a
performance or say grant applications which are increasingly important in
today’s economic climate.” (Maxim Boon 6 May 2016) within this essay I am going
to look at how reviews started and how they have changed over the years, how
reviewers set their reviews out and how reviews have an influence on a products sale
and how those reviews help improve a product.in order to do this I will first explore the
history of reviews from the beginning to today discussing changes that have
happened over the years, then move onto looking at some reviewers and how they
set out their reviews of different products from toy reviewers to film and video game
reviewers to understand how a genre of a product can affect how a review is set out,
then finally looking into how reviews influence the profits of a product but also the
companies that made said products as reviews are important as,
“Reviews not only have the power to influence consumer decisions but can
strengthen a company’s credibility. Reviews have the power to gain customer
trust, and they encourage people to interact with the company. Customer
interaction ultimately leads to improved profits for businesses.” (Jill Anderson
Nov 27, 2018)
And most reviews you find can be found online done by consumer who have bought a
product from a company and give their opinion on whether it is positive or negative
as, Consumers aren’t restricted online and can share their experiences as they
want to. They are free to say truthfully what they thought about the product and
what they believe is essential for others to know before making a buying
decision.
So, throughout this essay I will look at the importance of reviews mainly online
reviews and how they have an influence not only consumer but the companies that
provide product or services to said consumers by first looking at how the medium of
online reviews started, then look at present online reviewers and how they set their
reviews out and finally the statistics of reviews and the effect they have on
consumers.
Where it all began
Before online reviews became the main medium for reviews of product it first started
in the early 1900s with the start of the film industry as many used reviewing as a way

2. to break into film related jobs such as screen writers or a director “something that
hasn’t really changed over the last century, as it is just as prevalent now for
film school students to blog about their career exploits and cinematic musings
online in order to increase their chances of being noticed.” (Superadmin May
14, 2014),
and by the 1930s when film was becoming mainstream many reviews were journalist
diverted from other sections of the newspaper until there were dedicated movie
journalist like Otis Ferguson and James Agee that would review movies and wright
their opinions on the movies in the newspaper in which when television become
more mainstreams reviewers like Siskel and Ebert’s would take the reviewer spot
light with their show Siskel and Ebert’s show At the Movies in which the two would
watch a movie and tell viewers of their show about the movies they watched and
their thought on it until,
The medium of online reviews first began in 1999 which would change they the way
reviews were made with the creation of the websites RateItAll.com, Deja.com,
Epinions.com which “set in motion a social trend called “online reviews” that
influences nearly every type of consumer purchase today including choosing
a doctor.” (EMPATHIQ may 22 2015) which would allow regular people to give their
opinions on products, movies or people and by the year 2000 all three websites
accumulated over around 1,146,201 individual reviews up until around 2004 in which
the website RateMDs.com was created which focused primarily on reviewing doctors
in which it had around 320 rating in it dictionary but by 2007 that number had risen to
534,999 ratings.
It was also during 2004 that one man would change the way reviews were presented
forever by the name of james Rolfe or his alias or character the angry video game
nerd who would start the angry Nintendo nerd which would later change to angry
video game nerd to avoid copyright with the company Nintendo,
in which at the suggestion of a longtime friend to post videos which he had first made
to be joke between him and his friends would post the video he made of himself as
his character doing comedic reviews of poorly made video games,
were instead of focusing mainly informing his audience about the game he reviewed
rather he focused more on the comedy of his reviews which involved foul mouth
comedic commentary and skits of the poorly made video game he reviewed in which
he would post the video on his own website and the eventually emerging streaming
platform youtube,

3. in which it would gain a cult following as many trusted him as he was “just quite
simply a gamer he was the one who introduced me and I think many of us to
the world of online video as a medium for game discussion and comedy”
(Matthew Patrick dec 14 2013),
or to put it simply “he was a pioneer of the field” (Matthew Patrick dec 14 2013)
of game reviews bringing the genre into the medium review circle and inspiring
others to do their own comedic review series on their favorite mediums with their
own styles,
which has affected who people will go to for reviews as nowadays people look more
towards regular people reviewers like jangbricks for Lego, Chris stuckman for movies
and some call me johnny for more modern video game releases as their opinions
feel more honest and true than someone who is paid by a company to reviews
something.
And with the rising popularity of YouTube and online reviews one medium of review
became very popular and that was unboxing videos in which a reviewer would take a
product out of it packaging and would show it to their audience in which they will use
the product or play with depending if it’s a toy or not to see if it fulfills it purpose and
is worth others buying with two generational groups those being millennials and
generation z relying on these types of online reviews to decide whether or not a
product is worth buying or not,
this shows the effect of online reviews have had on consumers as now two
generation rely more on online reviews done by regular people than someone payed
to review a product as “The level of trust is higher, even if the creator is
affiliated with the brand in some way, than hearing the same review or
unboxing from the brand itself.” (Sponsokit Mar 9, 2018).
Reviewers today
As discussed in subheading one YouTube has become the main media platform for
product reviews as it is easy to find a review of a product you intend to purchase but
want an opinion to see if it’s worth buying or not by simply typing in the search bar
the product you are looking a review for and the website will show you a multitude of
video made by many creators with their own unique different styles of reviewing a
product, one of these channels being Jan bricks which has been around since 2010
in which it is a Lego review channel which focuses on reviewing Lego sets released
by the Lego group over the years from star wars to Lego city in which the video are
set out in a formal format in which jang will go over a brief overview of the set the
going into detail about the set showing off how it works and how its meant to be
played with then going over what he liked and disliked and what could’ve been
improved if the set is worth the price it is being sold at as he describes his channel
and himself as “I'm a genuine adult fan of collectibles, I enjoy what I do, and I
care about providing a clean, safe environment for viewers & fans while
delivering fair, balanced information and entertainment.” (Jangbricks Jun 26
2010), and this reviewer has quite the influence on consumers as currently his
subscriber count being 1.25 million meaning one million and a quarter people look to
this reviewer to see if Lego product are worth purchasing or not.

4. another unique reviewer that we can look at is Chris stuckmann who is a movie
reviewer in which his format is a quick and simple 5 minute review of a movie he
watched in which he discusses his opinions of the movie in more of a way friend
would tell a friend about a movie without ruining the plot of the movie if that person
wants to go see that movie for themselves in which he discusses what he like about
the movies what he felt could have been improved on and whether or not it is worth
watching or not and they way this reviewers describes himself as “Lover of film,
published author, certified on Rotten Tomatoes.” (Chris Stuckmann) and this
reviewer has quite the influence on consumers as his subscriber count has 1.84
million subscriber’s meaning nearly two million people watch his videos to see
whether it is worth buying a ticket to see it in theatre’s or buy it on DVD or not watch
it at all and save their money.
A third unique reviewer we can look at is somecallme johnny who is a video game
reviewer who video run time is for his video can vary depending on the video game
he’s reviewing and his video format Is very laid back and comedic in which he
discusses the basic of the game from its plot to its game play and how it feels whilst
cutting back and forth between him and footage of the game being played and the
way he talks to his viewers is the equivalent of and friend talking to a friend about a
game they’ve played and the way he describes himself “Pretty laid back individual
who enjoys a good cup of coffee, long walks on the beach--oh and review
games old and new. That last one is what I'm really here for, but sometimes I
also like to dabble in livestreams, podcasts and cartoons if I have the time for
it. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the show.” (Johnny Mar 5 2008) with the
influence he has on consumers being smaller than the other reviewers we have
looked at but still a respectable amount of influence on consumer with his subscriber
count being 389k meaning nearly half a million consumers go to this channel to see
if a game is worth buying and playing or not.
with this we see a common pattern as each of these reviewers present their reviews
more casually than formally as we see they discuss the product they’re reviewing
stating what is expected from a review the product itself and how it fits into the roll it
is made for the pros and cons but they give their own personal opinions about the
product with their reviews taking place in their homes instead of some expensive
studio like Siskel and Ebert’s in which they reviewed and talked about movies they
watch in a studio with a entire set crew recording and editing their review into a
coherent review as they have to shoot the video on their own getting help sometimes
and editing the recorded footage into a review all on their own which Is the case for
other online reviewers as well which creates more trust in the consumer as it create
as down to earth trust as “online reviews are integral part of the shopping
experience. Consumer are regularly using them to help make decisions”
(Laurie Fullerton mar 27 2017) if we were to say you were looking for a job
interview and you asked two different people say someone rich who owns a
company and someone who works for a different company but is an employee rather
than the owner of the company they work for and asked what job you should go for,
you would trust the employee rather than the business owner as they have more

5. experience what it is like working for a company such as working conditions, pay and
holidays so what they say is more creditable as the owner could misinform you about
what the working conditions are like, the pay and the holidays you get to make the
job sound appealing but then to find out that it was a mistake and is a terrible job to
work at, which is similar to reviewer as most people will trust online reviewer who
have bought the product and do reviews on their own rather than highly paid
reviewers who has been given the product for free and could be paid to say positive
thing about the product to make it sound more appealing which is why online
reviewer like the one we have discussed have become more prevalent in today’s
media climate as now people trust regular peoples reviews of product rather than
professional reviewer who are paid which is back up by “We’re more likely to make
a purchase if others around us—even total strangers—agree that it is a good
decision” (Smith Willas mar 6 2020) which in itself shows how much influence
online reviews even youtubers have on consumer and their purchase decisions as
we want to make the right choices and not one well regret later.
REVIEW STATISTICS
Another way we see reviews have an influence on consumers and the product they
buy can be found in the studies many institutions and companies have done over the
years as many modern day companies and people that wish to start a successful
business want to have a clear understanding of how they attract potential consumers
and build a mutual trust to keep those consumer purchasing their products but also
how they can involve the consumers in their growth of profit and potential new
consumers by looking into the blogs these companies and institutions have made
and seeing how they can change the way they promote their products or start to
promote their product to consumers,
one of these institutes that companies look to for an understanding on how to use
reviews to influence consumers into buying their products being the Spiegel research
center in which they looked at how online reviews have an impact on consumers
purchase decision in which one result they found in their research is that “The
purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% greater than the
purchase likelihood of a product with no reviews.”( Spiegel research center
Jun, 2017) meaning that product that have reviews will convince consumer to buy
said product with the review then a product without a review,
with another result of their research being “Reviews have a greater impact on
purchase likelihood for higher-priced items than cheaper ones.” (Spiegel
research center Jun, 2017) as “a lower-priced product, the conversion rate
increased 190%. However, for a higher-priced product, the conversion rate
increased 380%.” (Spiegel research center Jun, 2017) what this shows is that
reviews can help convince consumers into buying higher priced products than lower
priced products which shows how reviews can influence consumers when they are
buying products,
another company that businesses look to to understand how to use reviews to have
an influence on consumers to buy their products being mention which is a blogging

6. website which has a blog that can also support the ideas that product reviews can
influence a consumer what they purchase as it was found that as stated earlier
“We’re more likely to make a purchase if others around us—even total
strangers—agree that it is a good decision” (Smith Willas mar 6 2020) which
shows us that consumers nowadays look for the opinions others or reviews to make
sure that the purchase decision they make are the right choice which can also help a
company gain customer trust in their product as the ceo of seriously silly sock once
said in an interview that “Customer feedback creates that ‘social-proof’ trust that
encourages other visitors to our store to buy.” (Andrew Gill mar 6 2020) Which
backs up the theory that reviews influence consumers as reviews can encourage
potential consumer buy a company’s product as thanks to customer reviews the silly
sock websites “has been able to drive 60% higher average order value on the
company’s website than its other sales channels,” (Smith Willas mar 6 2020)
which shows how online reviews influence consumers as it can influence what
purchase channels those consumers go to for their wanted products.
with the website dixa showing the statistics “97% of participants said customer
reviews factor into their buying decisions. 92% of consumers hesitate to make
a purchase when there are no customer reviews, and 94% read reviews when
they are available.”(dixa feb 2018) what this shows is how integral online reviews
have become in the modern day and the influence they have on consumers and their
purchase decisions as many consumers actively seek out reviews for products when
they are ordering a product online as “Customers are more likely to purchase
from a website that has customer reviews than a website that doesn’t.”(dixa
feb 2018)
What we see here is the effect online reviews whether they are done by famous
reviewers or regular people have on consumers as now consumers actively seek out
reviews of product to be sure their purchase decision is the right choice as the
website thedrum.com did a blog in which they mentioned a survey or study done in
2017 by podium to see the effect reviews have on consumer and their purchases
decisions in which it suggest when asking consumer if online reviews impacted their
purchasing decisions the results showed that “93% say online reviews do impact
their purchasing decisions.” ( Laurie Fullerton mar 27 2017), reviews can also
effect how much a consumer will spend on a product or service as “the study
suggests that two-thirds of consumers (68%) are willing to pay up to 15% more
for the same product or service if they are assured they will have a better
experience.” ( Laurie Fullerton mar 27 2017) this shows how much consumer rely
on online reviews as especially in the modern digital age its easy for a company to
lie about their products or use service they provide to secretly steal data so people
want to make sure what they buy is the right choice and isn’t one they regret later as
you don’t want to buy a chair to sit on it one time then break,
however we must also consider how companies are effected by reviews as stated
earlier companies old and new are looking at the best ways to improve their services
or product or make a good first impression with potential consumers and example of
this can be found on the website forbs as they have a page that go into detail on why
it is a good decision to include a review section to your online store or business for
product or services you provide in which they state that reviews can “Increased

7. understanding of brand/business perception, Increased visibility to customers,
especially within search results, Control over the first impression of the
business, Ability to gain insight into how customers perceive competitors
online” (Matt Bowman Jan 15, 2019) what this shows is that online reviews have
an important influence on the way companies present themselves to consumers as
forbs even recommends that “Create and implement a review program that
engages your customers and encourages them to leave their positive
feedback, Set a goal for the number of reviews your business needs. On
average, at least 40 reviews are needed before consumers put trust in the
overall rating, Maintain a consistent review campaign. Almost half of
consumers only care about reviews completed within the last two weeks,”
(Matt Bowman Jan 15, 2019) this shows us how important reviews are to
companies and the profits they make with the products they sell and the consumers
that buy those product as reviews can help improve product or point out flaws that
may have been missed and can be rectified to improve a product or service,
this can be back up by the website reputationX as they in their blog how reviews
influence revenue as they say that ” Positive reviews with 5-star ratings help to
compel potential clients to contact you as they feel more confident about your
business. The more customers you satisfy, the more people will be interested
in buying your products/services.” (Jessica Bruce Nov 3, 2020). Even negative
reviews are important for a business as they say on reputationX when given a
negative review “Remain calm when replying to negative reviews. What you say
in your response has the ability to change the person's mind about your
business. Always address their concern and work to resolve the issue, which
may mean taking the conversation to email or private messages.” (Jessica
Bruce Nov 3, 2020). Which can be a positive for a company as it shows they are
willing to listen and improve which leave a good impression on consumers and may
even win some lost consumer back.
Conclusion
What we have learned and seen throughout this essay is the effects online reviews
have on consumers and companies as we have seen that when reviews started they
were used more as an easier way to get a high paying job in the film industry which
is still prevalent today for “film school students to blog about their career
exploits and cinematic musings online in order to increase their chances of
being noticed” (Superadmin May 14, 2014), then becoming more prevalent in
society to the point were there were reviews shows like Siskel and Ebert’s show At
the Movies which would later change with the creation of the sites such as
RateItAll.com, Deja.com and Epinions.com were regular people could share their
opinions with others in which the site youtube would become the main website
people will go to for reviews of products by looking at video done by reviewers like
jangbricks with a subscriber count being at 1.25 million which shows the effect online
reviews have on consumers as we see one million and a quarter people trust online
reviews done by this channel to see if products that this channel reviews are worth
buying,
we even see the effect reviews have on companies that produce products for

8. consumers to buy in which we see that businesses are now looking for ways to
incorporate reviews into haw they make and sell their products as many websites
that give advice for already established and upcoming businesses that if these
companies have websites that consumer buy from is that these website have at least
a review section for the product page and to “Create and implement a review
program that engages your customers and encourage them to leave their
positive feedback.” As this can help a company make a very good profit on
products they produce as if your product has a good reputation then more people will
buy them.
bibleography
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