Left on the Web

The ethics of paid reviews

Following up on an earlier story, I look at the ethics of writing a paid review.

Ivo Jansch responded to my previous post, in which I discussed my small success using ReviewMe, about the ethics of paid reviews. An interesting topic, which already prompted me to reply with the length of a regular post to Ivo's response. I've let my thoughts go a bit more on this topic. Ethics. If there is any topic which is more subjective than anything else, it's probably ethics. Because what is ethical for one, can be highly unethical for someone else. And also, some people can handle certain questionably ethical situations better than others. Now I don't want to start praising myself to heaven, but in this case, I think I'm used to the situation a bit. The question at hand is: Are paid reviews really reviews, or will the reviewer automatically be a bit biased by the payment (s)he receives for the review. As Ivo mentioned, ??a more than usual number of reviewers will feel ‘socially compelled’ to write a positive review.?? Yes, I think this is true. Especially people who are "regular webloggers", who usually write about what catches their attention. When you're not used to receiving stuff for review, but review that which you buy, it will be a different situation when you receive something to review, or when you get money for the review. In the case described in my previous post however, the site on which I wrote the review is an (electronic music) magazine, for which I receive promo cd's (and sometimes DVD's) on a regular basis. After writing a review (or sometimes I don't write a review), I can do with those promo's what I want. I could sell them, give them away, whatever I want. Usually I just keep them though. But my point here is that I'm used to receive something for my reviews. Some labels even send me t-shirts and other extra material such as stickers, even though I only need to review the music. Receiving money to write a review of a website is, to me, a similar thing. I just write down my opinion on the subject of my review, and get something in return, be it money or a cd. The example that Ivo also came up with, Microsoft giving away fully loaded laptops, is a bit more extreme though. In my case, we're talking about a worth of $30 max. Now, I don't know about others, but this amount is not enough for me to be influenced in writing a positive review. However, if I'd be asked to write a review on Windows Vista, and in return I get a fully loaded laptop... yes, that might influence my review. OK, sure, I am quite anti-microsoft, so in this case I probably wouldn't be influenced, but let's say Kubuntu would be sending me a laptop to review their next release, then I'd quite possibly be writing more positive than I'd usually do. I guess there's a thin line here, and also it depends on who will be reviewing. In my case, ReviewMe is a good way to earn a bit of my hosting costs back and get to know some nice new products. I don't get influenced by $30. I probably wouldn't be influenced either by $50. I guess a lot of people would probably not be influenced by such amounts. When it comes to laptops, it's probably different. As I said earlier though: ??what is ethical for one, can be highly unethical for someone else.?? It is up to everyone to decide for themselves how they feel about this.
January 8, 2007 - tags: weblogging