Under The Table: Reviewers vs blogger
A Hong Kong publication once sent a writer to review a brand new Japanese restaurant in Causeway Bay. The reviewer wrote that the portions were very small, the flavours very light, the pricing very expensive, the service too fussy and the lighting too dark. The publication ran it and the restaurant closed down two months after print.
What the readers didn’t know was the review was done by an intern. Someone who was new to the city, had little experience in critical writing and didn’t have the budget to spend much time comparing fancy restaurants. The consequence was a $2 million project, the owners’ life savings, down the tube.
In journalism, what you say comes with responsibility. This story came to mind when New York University recently held a forum asking: Are restaurant reviewers still necessary? The floor was divided: professional reviewers on the panel enthusiastically nodded yes while food bloggers, in real-time, blogged no. And the imagery of celebrated food journalists on an elevated stage nodding their heads versus bloggers angrily challenging the journalists’ every thought on their keyboards is a good illustration of where we are today. What was really being asked during this forum is this: Should opinion writing be democratised? After a quick scan of food blogs around Hong Kong I have to side with my fellow journalists.
Many blogs fall into one of three categories: the ego-driven nobody who power-trips with his iPhone, writing negative, knee-jerk reviews if they are not fawned over at restaurants; the “I took my mom to ____ and we liked ____ very much” variety; or the worst of the breed, the marketing spiel disguised as a personal blog.
The last category is harder to spot if you don’t do the due diligence. Some of the most respected food bloggers keep their identities hidden for anonymity, but if you cover the food beat, then you’ll know instantly which ones are blood relatives of people running various restaurant groups. One recent blog post lambasted a new restaurant in Central but did not state that its author was the marketing manager for the restaurant right next door to the one he was slamming. Disclosure, in this case, is your friend.
When I used to take press meals – that is, free meals paid for by restaurants in the hope of generating press coverage (a good time to mention that Time Out reviews anonymously and pays for meals) – tables would be filled by freeloading journalists and bloggers awaiting a king’s feast. What I didn’t understand then, but clearly see now, is that the acceptance of a free meal creates the classic journalistic conflict of interest: how do I judge a restaurant when they’re on their best behaviour?
I asked Vicki Williams, associate editor of WOM Guide, whether food bloggers should be allowed to receive free meals. Her response: “No. Nor do I think they should be invited to press conferences and events. For me a blog is a personal way to share thoughts on subjects that interest, which is totally different to the writings of a professional lifestyle journalist.”
Before you cry foul, this is no scare tactic to steer readers away from food blogs and put their trust in professionals like me. Food bloggers are not the bad guys in this write up. “You are more likely to trust your friend’s opinion than a professional’s,” says Winnie So, author of the blog Little Cream Life (littlecreambook.com). And with food blogs these days turning into six-figure book deals, such as This is Why You're Fat, or a Hollywood movie (Julie & Julia), you might think: why not give it a go? Even in this over-saturated market of food blogging, there will always be room for more prose and praise. Everyone eats therefore everyone can use puffery to sing to the masses. Right?
But let me play devil’s advocate for a moment and examine the advantages of blogs, the main ones being they don’t have to be physically printed or distributed. Print media have lag time between collecting the information and when it is released, potentially months after restaurants have opened. Bloggers have instant publishing tools. In fact, all they need to do is whip out their iPhone tableside. This of course has its problems as well. Often the outcome is spontaneous, unedited, hasty opinions. In this day and age, a restaurant critique is not just a record of having been there, ate that, but also a reference book, a history lesson, a travel log, a celebration of food vernaculars, all while conveying delight or disdain. There is a baseline standard that comes from understanding and investigation. That only comes from years of disciplined eating, travelling, tracking talents and and maybe even the odd bout of food poisoning in the line of duty. Not something that should be left to the novice. Though no one’s stopping you.
Angie Wong
18 Comments Add your comment
Thank you for writing a piece like this. Love for you to name and shame those you mentioned. It is a disservice for marketers&pR to not say their agendas and trick readers to believing they are a real source..
Thank you so much for writing this article. I work at a pr company and we have this debate almost weekly whether or not we should invite bloggers. I'm surprised to read someone who is a marketing manager would keep a blog that criticized his competitor. Surely he or she will be discovered and disgraced.. Someone in his or her role should know better. Anyway I just wanted to personally say thank you for informing your readers that to be careful of what you read. You never know who is writing it.
To be fair, did the marketing manager you mention actually write a blog post about the competitor restaurant as you say he did? I don't think so...
I also work in a PR agency & I think I know what this is about. However, same comment as JaneHK, I dont think he / she actually wrote a review ripping it out of the new restaurant. I think you should get such facts right before writing an article like this?? I also follow him / her on twitter & facebook & it seems that he / she is actually very generic about his comments. He / she is simply enthuasiastic towards food but not using his / her authority to lambast another restaurants!
Time Out often seems to have reviews out for restaurants that have barely opened. Given publishing lead times (as mentioned in the article), one can only assume that reviews/visits were made way before grand opening. I applaud TO's effort to pay for each meal, but reviewing before official opening means: 1. hard to know how well the kitchen and floor will do under pressure, and 2. it's likely that an appointment (a media lunch or the sort) was made, so the owners and chef would have known who was coming and could therefore be extra careful/attentive etc., thereby ameliorating the reviewer's experience. From a reader's perspective objectivity is diminished and the review becomes less useful, much like the criticism that the writer here has made of bloggers. In addition, many bloggers are also journalists, and/or not "novices". Bloggers are usually passionate "food geeks" who can, and often come from various highly relevant backgrounds, from ex-chefs to children of food suppliers, to food writers. Sure, there are many ignorant bloggers too, but using the blanket term "bloggers" in a deprecating way is slightly unjust. There are trained "journalists" or even entire media corporations that lack knowledge and ethics, and report with an interest without disclosure (hello NewsCorp). Nonetheless, today's media landscape has enough space for both "journalists" and "bloggers" - there really shouldn't be an "us vs. them" mentality, If you're doing your "job" well - ethically with good opinion and writing - you'll be read, whatever your media.
Just to clarify something in Katie's comment: Time Out Hong Kong always pays for meals and reviews anonymously, and we don't review based on media lunches or any other meals arranged for media. Thanks for your comments, Hamish McKenzie Features Editor
Thanks for the response Hamish, but could you please clarify why reviews of new restaurants often appear before they are fully open? Were they pre-arranged visits?
Hi Katie Thank you for your message. In response to your inquiry: If a restaurant is opened to the public and charging full prices for meals, then we deem it ready for review. Again, if they are charging full prices, then we believe diners should also receive full service and the full experience to dine there. I hope this explains our policy. Angie Wong
In general I think Angie Wong made very good points. Maybe a little harsh on the more 'professional' food bloggers who are either journalists or ex journalists writing about a subject they know. But there are a lot of food bloggers in HK who write for the love of the sound of their own voice. We all like to eat, but that doesn't make us experts in evaluating a restaurant. The written word is very powerful and bloggers can slate a chef or restaurant based on no real understanding of what the food should be like. The same could be said for published food critics but there is more accountability and come back if a magazine writer gets it wrong.
The article above certainly highlights the more than 1 greater issues at hand. From my observation as of late, way many online food bloggers try too hard to manufacture their known presence online just so that they can build a platform to strut their stuff. Many bloggers even believe they know it all and are better than trained experts - but if u scrutinize the details from a much closer range, one can alway observe the multitude of obviously kindergarten grade flaws and mistakes at any given page. Those who can catch sniff of funnies then logically begin to ask the question of whether these amateur bloggers are blurting out of their behinds occasionally in that atttempt to struggle for supremacy, all in the virtual world! On the other hand, most printed mags are by default able to concentrate on just writing and divulging about the latest trends and venues without the unnecessary burden of needing to cannabalise on other blogger's vulnerability, treating it as a stepping stone so that they can land on the top pedestal. As to the 2nd problem - the above mentioned blogger in question has been, in my personal opinion, usually subjectively impartial when reviewing eateries. If you have remotely followed the columns - he has shown a habit of being critical on average, but accurately, whether it be an experience involving a PR freebie meal in an IFC restaurant or what he had paid for himself. He has openly written too, that his invited meal at some venues seemed much better than that an anonymous visit afterwards. That to be is a fair approach and is a true sign of a Food Lover and blogger, however arrogant, truthful or subjective you might interpret it. Having said that I do concur with the consensus a violation of codes has been breached this time, because there was an obvious conflict of interest. In particular when he is being employed and paid by a company which is situated in such close proximity to a competitor's restaurant. But on the overall scheme of things, extrapolating from his past behaviour one would sympathise and give him enough brownie points to give a benefit of the doubt, at least for once. He shall be given a yellow card then and should heed warnings: but there probably won't be room for accomodation of another blunder the 2nd time around, when and if there is a re-offense. As for the responsibility of the foodie bloggers who treat a keyboard as a wrath sword, as long as there's reasons explaining why there was negative commotion in the 1st place, do we really think this is worst or better than those friends of a friend or owner reviews which wax lyrical about the whole experience, when it is skewered and can never be emulated again by us unknown customers and diners, unless you're a journalist, famous reviewer, the Zagats or the Michelin judges? A magazine can boast of being anonymous whenever writing reviews and is therefore not given prefential treatment, but that doesn't preclude us foodies from claiming the same. The only difference as mentioned above - is whether you are trained or at least know enough about food and what you're eating, which on average, there is a big swing towards the trained writing staff. But in no way is this conclusion absolute.
Hi Angie, Your article on reviewers v bloggers was amazing and I am certainly aware of the person that slandered and posted completely incorrect information about their competitor. Please stop by anytime as it would be nice to meet you. Regards, Kate
I write my own blog on cosmetics and makeup purely for fun and passion. Never thought about using this as a route to make money or a living out of it Can you guys not see the brightside of his blog, he consistently spends his hours writing and doin this purely for fun & passion. Rather than criticising his comments on competitor restaurants, why don't you guys look on the good side of things? Respect and enjoy what he has done towards food. I don't know the guy personally but I truly respect his enthusiasm.
That seems to be his running line. The marketer in question has written he blogs for the passion of food in personal emails to everyone who had criticized him. When he says passion, does he mean his passion to destroy competitive restaurants? I don’t support him or his words.
Angie, You make some valid points about 'bloggers' being transparent and open about their intentions and their background/reason for the blog. In fact, the US Federal Trade Commission recently introduced guidelines that dictate what a blogger can/cannot do. One example is that they must disclose whether they are being paid or are receiving gifts/free trials by a brand to blog about a product. However, at this point in time, it is near impossible to enforce and is unrealistic to expect every blogger to abide by them. The global diversity of bloggers show that people will blog for different reason. So, right now, we are in a situation where bloggers build their own fan following based on the credibility they build with readers. If the general consensus is that a blogger is not credible, then people won’t read. Simple as that. I don’t think it is for a journalist to decide who is or isn’t credible. We are finding more and more journalists discrediting bloggers, one reason being the fear of losing their livelihood. I’m sure this isn’t the case here though. I’m sure you have upset a number of bloggers with your article, but what is great is that you have raised an interesting issue. I hope the blogging community does not turn on you!
I don't think Angie is slapping ALL bloggers, just the dubious ones who are also marketers, advertisers, or public relations clowns disguising as "passionate" food bloggers.
US bloggers will have to disclose if they are being compensated by advertisers or service provider when they review http://bit.ly/mRP7k.
I think it is important for blogger to reveal their professions and also announce if they are endorsing a product. Advertisers and marketers have no place writing a personal blog judging their competitors. It is unethical and just an idiotic move if found out.
So this is the article everyone is talking about! Thank you for having the guts to publish an article like this. So much of Hong Kong's media is so sensitive to offend their advertisers they stay away from real news that affect consumers. I'm happy to hear Time Out is not letting advertisers call the shots when it comes to editorial content. Other publications should take note. Some of the comments on this page read like it was written by the bloggers described in the article. So I will speak to them directly. As a marketing person myself, I am asked by lifestyle bloggers to included them on my media emailing list all the time. I choose not to include them because I represent a luxury brand and we do not want to dilute ourselves in blogs where it could look low-quality. But more importantly, blogger have no business being on our mailing as they are not reporters. Often I am asked to provided press trips at our sister hotel in trade of a review. Okay, if you are Travel & Leisure, not okay if you only have a personal blog site. I've noticed bloggers are getting more and more greedy with their media privileges and I wonder if they think of themselves as press members? They are not. They dont have the training, ethics or experience to be press, so they take five mins to start a blog! I have also noticed companies will also have blogs touting their products and disgracing competitors. This needs to stop. I call for our government to put laws in place for unethical blogging. Advertisers should stick to media where it is clearly marked an advertisement. If they do promote under a veil of disguised identity, then they should be jailed or fined for deceiving the public. Thank you for this story Time Out.
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