"Rotten Tomatoes" in the field of popular cultural production

RottenTomatoes.com is a film review site that aggregates reviews from various journalistic and non-professional sources, offering a comprehensive resource for casual users as well as an online community of film buffs. This paper considers how Rotten Tomatoes functions as an example of online film criticism within the context of a field of popular cultural production. Rotten Tomatoes is situated within the enterprise of film criticism, as well as the global networks of media conglomerates. I argue that the commercial underpinnings of online film criticism results in the renegotiation of traditional critical functions as well as popular involvement in film communities. Rotten Tomatoes provides a case study of how popular discourses operate in contemporary culture industries that are marked by convergence.