May 2, 2006

Peer Recommendations - Not Expert Critics - Rule

Following up on my post yesterday, "The Dwindling Market for Professional Critics," I came across a Boston Globe article that tells the same story.

In "Everyone's always been a critic -- but the Net makes their voices count, " columnist Scott Kirsner writes:

Amazon.com may have been one of the first sites, in the mid-1990s, to allow its users to share their thoughts about a book, just below the venerable Publishers Weekly or Booklist write-up. Now, such sites as Blogcritics.org collect reviews written by bloggers, and Apple's iTunes Music Store allows users to share their iMixes -- lists of favorite songs on a particular theme, like ''NJ Best," a selection from Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and other musicians with roots in the Garden State.

''The cultural influencers are changing," says Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer of Lycos, the Waltham Internet portal. ''Expert opinion in the media used to drive culture. Now, it's peer recommendations."

[Boston Globe article via Arts Journal.]

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