Although I know nothing about critiquing and reviewing, I will attempt my best at this week's prompt. Reviewing is something that everyone does on a daily basis. From the taste of food to a hairstyle, everyone has something to say. Today we live in a society that has the capabilities of getting information out to the public at lightning fast speed. When I think of reviews I think of two things … 1) blogs and 2) critics who think they know everything about everything. I am not a person who relays on other opinions. Although they are important to know and understand, opinions are personal and don’t match person to person. I think this is one reason why when choosing what movie to see or show to watch, I pay no attention to what others say about them. However, the readings for this week showed me that today, critiquing is very much like blogging. The websites Metacritics, Pitchforlk, and Gorilla vs. Bear are more forums for discussions than telling people what to think, like, and potentially buy. Also these websites show off the advantages of technology to the critiquing genre.
The use of technology, I think, has a great effect on the process of reviewing. Taking it directly from the prompt, immediacy and relevancy, I think, are affected the most by this. When talking about relevancy, the thought that comes into my mind is “right now.” Immediacy can have the same description, but they are different. When reviewing, I think that it would be important to get the critiques to a wide array of people as fast as possible. When thinking about relevancy however, I am conflicted. Relevancy can be personal … what one person sees as relevant another might not. Technology plays a huge role in reviewing today because of the immense audience reached and the capability to get ideas and thoughts to the public fast. Allowing a forum for many different interpretations is also an advantage of multimedia. A mixture of critiques from multiple sources is always better than just one persons opinion.
In a previous post I talked about my thoughts on blogs and the advantages and disadvantages of them. However, a blog that is totally about personal opinion (review) can’t really have disadvantages. Blogs and critics who think they know everything about everything can be very different forums for discussion, but I think that they do hold similar genre characteristics. The one that stands out the most however would be the immense honesty of a reviewer on film, music, or television. I know that Ron loves Foster the People and considering it's the only band that I know that could be sondiered indie, I decided to look at this review on Metacritics. One user said this, "fBeing a very blunt person myself, I think that this is most important. I see reviewing as a genre looking much like a blog. As I stated before, one of the things I think of when I hear the word review I think of blogs. It’s a forum of discussion that can be personal, non-academic, and very opinionated ... which I like.
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you focused on relevancy in part of your response. You indicate that relevancy can be relative. By this, I mean that one person might think a given album is more important to him or her, and another person might dismiss it as trite. You also focus on immediacy, and note that media reviews are able to deliver opinions NOW. You parallel what I focus on in my journal this week when you say that the combination of multiple reviews allows for a more accurate rating. Instead of analyzing one person’s opinion, we are brought to an awareness of many opinions via media reviews. Nice post!
Maria
You make an interesting comment when you say that opinions are personal and don’t match person to person. I think this is important when we talk about the reviewing genre because if all people had the same opinions, the world would certainly be a boring place. What makes the critiques and reviews helpful is the variety received, so an artist (or hairstylist or chef, in your examples) can improve on to become better. I agree with you, critiquing and reviewing are very commonly seen in blog form, but we can’t forget the medium and people that first made this ‘genre’ what it is (Roger Ebert and his book of film reviews is fascinating and really informative!) But as the technological age continues, people have to resort to what’s popular, and blogging is definitely one of the hot trends now (I would make a comment about leggings being popular too, but that’s another English class.)
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out the distinctions between immediacy and relevancy. I agree, relevancy to me means relevant, right now, what’s popular. Immediacy does mean getting the reviews out as fast as possible, which you pointed out. I looked up what dictionary.com had to say about immediacy (I know, nerd alert) and it also included definitions like “closest or most direct in effect or relationship” and “present; current” which I think ties it nicely to relevancy. If relevancy is what’s going on right now, and what’s relevant to our culture, than immediacy is also what’s current, what’s happening. I never would have thought the two words were so closely tied, good thing we have dictionaries!
I really enjoyed your post, and it was interesting to see what kind of music each of us would pick to review, as it (I think) reveals a little bit about our personalities. Being that this is only an online class, we might never get to meet each other, so these little glimpses help us to get to know one another better. Don’t judge me on my music reviews; I’m not a big indie-rock person. I picked the albums with the pretty covers :)
Angela -- your comments are always so plentiful! When I was writing up my response, I was worried that it wouldn't make sense ... I couldn't really define that difference between relevancy and immediacy. I am glad that you dictionary.comed it and don't be worry, you are not the only nerd in our bunch :) I agree, I don't think that we will ever have a chance to meet for this class and our responses tell a little bit about our personalities. In return, our response to others also gives us the pleasure of conversing as if we were actually in a classroom. And Im glad you chose the reviews with the pretty album covers, Im not much of an Indie person myself ... but when a song speaks to me, it doesn't matter what genre it falls into! Have a great night :)
Deletedefinitely agree on the point you made about a particular song speaking to you, the genre becomes a bit irrelevant as long you can relate to the lyrics & what the artist/band is trying to get across. Have a great night as well & a wonderful spring break! :)
DeleteThe distinction between immediacy and relevancy is definitely worth making - thanks Angela...
DeleteIn my opinion (hah - couldn't resist) your focus on the discussion forums speaks to what the web an interesting place to discuss these kinds of issues - all of these immediate responses build a kind of zeitgeist that seems powerfully influential, meme-building of a sort...
ReplyDeleteOf course, some of you really smart cool kids even know how to manipulate those memes these days...