Bullies and blackouts: Examining the participatory culture of online book reviewing

Abstract

This article examines online book reviewing practices through Henry Jenkins’s notion of ‘participatory culture’ and illustrates the power dynamics and market pressures that shape this participation. While the individuals featured in this article participate in shared affinity spaces around a passion for reading and writing books, they also participate in a publishing industry increasingly reliant on reviews and ratings. I argue that the sabotaging and bullying of authors and reviewers, and the power dynamics reinforced through these tactics, risk being occluded by scholarship that emphasizes the literacy practices fostered through participatory culture over the content and social actions reproduced through them. My analysis of book reviewing practices demonstrates the need to critique the positive imagery evoked by terms like ‘participatory’, ‘affinity’, ‘online community’, ‘shared goals’, and ‘collective knowledge’ and to examine these terms within their specific discursive and economic conditions.