Abstract

The developments of internet technology known as Web 2.0, based on user-generated content, have led to the growth of amateur reviewers who can reach a wide audience through blogs, message boards and social network sites. This democratization of criticism is challenging the role of professional journalists in the traditional media as the main source of consumer information and recommendation. This paper examines some of the factors behind the growing influence of the amateur reviewer. While the location of the reviews on websites attracting the appropriate community is the first step in the process, they will only have an influence if they are also readable and credible. Using as a case study a popular restaurant-review blog it shows how the author uses narrative techniques to draw in her readers and establish her credibility as a reliable source of information about the restaurant. Drawing on the narrative analysis of Labov (Labov and Waletzky 1967, Labov 1997) it uses his concepts of narrative sections with functions of abstract, orientation, complicating action and evaluation to analyse how the reviewer establishes the readability and credibility of the narrative. It suggests that attention is also needed to the construction of the character of the narrator/reviewer and the influence of the implied readership. This can lead to an understanding of the role of the review in the author’s narrative of identity, and their positioning with a particular community of consumption with its own discourse, repertoire and values.

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