THE CITIZEN JOURNALISM MANUAL…

22. Writing reviews

Published in

PacificEdge

5 min readJul 30, 2022

THE CITIZEN JOURNALIST might review books, films, video and/or products to assess their effectiveness and help people decide whether to buy them.

For products like equipment an review would look at:

their fitness for their advertised purpose; do they do what they are supposed to do?
how well they fulfil their purpose — do they do so effectively or inefficiently? are they easy or difficult to use?
for some products, any necessary safety precautions for their use
materials and construction quality
whether the product is a new invention or an iteration of an existing product; eg. a new mobile phone would be an iteration of an existing technology
any special skills required to use the device
any legal requirements required for its use; eg. some radio communications equipment requires a licence; drones are not permitted to be used in a certain distance around an airport
the name and location of the manufacturer — where is the manufacturer based and where was the product made?
their value for money proposition.

Reviews of books/film/video and media productions:

who the publication is for; it is a children’s book? young adult’s book? for the general reader/viewer?
the writing style of a book; is it in plain language? does it contain a lot of technical detail that requires a knowledge of the subject? fiction? nonfiction? what is the reader rhythm like — the flow of reading?
the size of the book or video: how many pages? how long?
production values — literary merit, editing
how well does the production fulfil its aim? this is more relevant to instruction manuals and nonfiction
how well the author argues their case
mention of the author/producer’s previous works; is this new production a departure in subject matter?

Reviews are necessarily subjective. They describe the reviewer’s experience with the product or book. That is contingent on the reviewers knowledge of the topic and product type and their experience of using similar products or engaging in activities where the products are used. For example, someone reviewing a new hiking pack would be expected to have used a range of hiking packs, be familiar with materials used and in their construction, be familiar with the ergonomics and other features of pack design and with the different types of packs that are suited to different uses.

In reading reviews there is an unstated expectation that the reader will assume they are the reviewers point of view that might not be shared by other reviewers, readers or users.

Reviews of books, products or films can be influential in which product or books readers buy. This is why in writing reviews we accept the responsibility of producing a fair and accurate article. Reviews remain a valid tool, however there have been criticisms that they are open to manipulation by people supportive of the author or manufacturer who post positive reviews on their behalf.

In writing or videoing reviews, we report the thing being reviewed in a way that:

avoids suspicion that the review will be biased, disclosing that the product or book has been provided free by the manufacturer or publisher for the purpose of reviuew if this is the situation
in disclosing this some reviewers state that their review will not be influenced, something that can be verified by the fairness and fullness of the review and by comparing it to other reviews of the product
provides a full review — what works well, what doesn’t and how it could be improved
demonstrates or provides evidence for what we say about the product; field testing is a way of doing this; for example, to test a pack provided by a manufacturer, a reviewer might load it and take a walk with it to test it against manufacturer claims and its recommended use.

Research a product on YouTube and we come across authentic video reviews and ‘unboxing’ videos. The latter are useless as a review and of no value to someone considering buying the product. All they show is someone removing a product form its packaging and, commonly, reciting the manufacturer’s claims. There is no testing and no opinion based on the use of the product, so there is no value to viewers deciding whether to buy or to avoid. it. In contrast are the reviews of video bloggers who build a reputation for objective reviews and become trusted sources.

Some people selling things put great value on testimonials. These should be approached with a skeptical mindset. The problem is distinguishing the authentic from the fake, such as a seller or their colleagues writing positive testimonials about the product they sell. If writing testimonials, say what is good and what is not and disclose your relationship to the manufacturer or distributor.

Bias or favoritism in reviewing will become apparent when the reader/viewer compares what is said with what other reviewers say. Online, we live in a reputation economy and its is our reputation as a citizen journalist that is at stake.