Why Does Society Review Media?

By Nicholas Neyhouse on February 18, 2015

In the past I’ve spoken about reviewing music, movies, t.v. shows, and other media. I personally enjoy the act of reviewing and discussing the media I consume. Specifically I also enjoy cataloging the media and sharing it with the people around me. This is why I have started my online media diary. But the main question that has recently been on my mind is: Why Do We Review?

Why do we choose a best picture and album of the year? Why do people spend time, and in some cases devote their lives to, making reviews of media? And why are people interested in their opinions and the number the reviewer gives a certain album?

The first reason people enjoy reviews is to find out what they may be interested in. This may sound simplistic, although it is direct, and the reasoning makes sense. People don’t want to waste their time on something that they may not enjoy, and with the copious amounts of media that we produce as a society we don’t have enough time to consume it all.

Not everyone cares to check the review section of a newspaper or will look at Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, but those who do look will spend less time overall watching things they dislike. Of course every review will not represent the viewer’s exact opinion, and every review you read or watch you should take with a grain of salt.

A second reason that people may enjoy reviews is because the media becomes ranked or reduced to a number. Reducing media to a just a few words creates an appealing feeling, and being able to know how good something is through just a number satisfies the consumer. This reason feels very superficial and pointless, although it makes sense in a society where we want instant gratification.

The consumer has the ability to know if something is good or not very quickly. They can have something to say in a conversation if someone brings up a movie that got a high rating in a review, even if they have not seen the movie. There is almost a way to cheat in a conversation if you have seen a review of something, and you steal an opinion from the review instead of formulating your own.

The third reason for reviews actually promotes a healthy habit, which is sparking intellectual and engaging conversation about a subject. If you see a movie and you formulate an idea of what you thought about the movie, and then you read a review on it then you can use your own opinions in conversation with the review. A new stronger and more informed opinion may result from the review, and then taking that idea to a group of friends spreads the conversation and continues a path of intellectual growth.

I’d like to add that ranking films is not a bad thing, although it is only the beginning to forming an opinion of that media. It is easy to say that you like one film over another, although articulating your reasons for why you enjoy that particular film is much harder. Reviews help us form stronger opinions, and they inform us on information we may have missed or were previously unaware of. So if you use reviews in a constructive way they can help build your character and ideas, although they can also be used for more superficial ways such as deciding which film to watch based off of a number.

Photo taken on: September 11, 2012 by Nesster

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