Sociology of Reviews in the Digital Age: Understanding Evaluation Criteria in TripAdvisor

• In Event: 3184 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03. Evaluation, Beliefs, and Reasoning

Abstract

This paper argues for the development of a Sociology of Reviews, especially with respect to the user-generated reviews of cultural materials that are increasingly prevalent online. We focus on reviews of experiences in cultural organization, and connect a nascent sociology of non-professional reviews to the growing sociology of (e)valuation. Our dataset consists of all reviews of London cultural organizations (N=52,721 reviews) published by TripAdvisor in 2014. We analyze these digital trace data using topic models and multiple correspondence analysis. Our goal is to understand the criteria that reviewers use in their evaluations, in order to uncover reviewers’ “theories of value” with respect to their consumption of cultural experiences. Methodologically, we demonstrate how Internet-sourced, very large-scale data can contribute meaningfully to social science. Substantively, we find that commonly used evaluative criteria in user-generated reviews suggest reviewers draw in part on a popular aesthetic, but they are broader. In addition to aesthetics they are also concerned with the use-value of the attraction, so they include information on things like queues, costs, location, staff friendliness, toilets and seating comfort.

Authors

• Grant Blank, University of Oxford

• Victoria D. Alexander, University of Surrey

• Scott A. Hale, University of Oxford