Critics, Ratings, and Society The Sociology of Reviews

by Blank, Grant

• ISBN13: 9780742547025
• ISBN10: 0742547027
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-10
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

How do we make choices in an information-saturated world? While many prior studies have focused on the problems of individuals in this environment, sociologists have rarely asked how individuals judge the credibility of new information; for instance, are we forced to depend on secondary sources that no one has the time or resources to verify? In Critics, Ratings, and Society, Grant Blank confronts these questions through an investigation of independent evaluations and reviews: institutions that influence success and failure, make or break reputations and careers, and often play a critical role in stratification, power, and status. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Grant Blank is assistant professor of sociology at American University in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
What Are Reviews?	p. 1
Toward a Theory of Credible Rating Systems	p. 25
Connoisseurial Reviews: Restaurants	p. 43
Procedural Reviews: Statistical Software	p. 71
The Production of Reviews	p. 103
Audiences, Credibility, and the Social Construction of Reviews	p. 131
"Dining Is My Sport": Reception and Hierarchies	p. 157
Reviews and the Status Culture	p. 179
Appendices	p. 205
References	p. 219
Index	p. 235
About the Author	p. 245
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