Crossovers between Amateur and Professional Critique in TV Series Blogs

Special Report: Lay Evaluation: Online Opinions
By Anne-Sophie Béliard
English

The spread of TV series fans’ critique in the press and the simultaneous, rapid proliferation of lay critique on Internet is one of the singular features of the history of TV series critique in France. While its institutionalization and professionalization are still underway, professional critique is massively exposed to competition from amateurs on Internet. This article studies the relations between amateur and professional critics in the blogosphere. It shows that there are dividing lines between the practices of amateur and professional critics, which stem from the use of the blog as a tool and the way critique is conceived of. These lines are however blurred by constant back-and-forth between professional and amateur blogging behaviours. The author thus highlights the fact that TV series fans’ online evaluation contributes to hybridizing these bloggers’ status, to the extent of professional critics idealizing the blog as a space of freedom.

Go to the article on Cairn-int.info