Rotten Tomatoes Adds More Critics to Its Tomatometer
by EG
Until now, you could be pretty sure that any review included in Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer was written by someone who was white or male, and probably both. Now the review aggregator is trying to change that. Read on for details.
Rotten Tomatoes is expanding its male-dominated critics base in order to be more inclusive and foster diversity among those writing film and television reviews that are included in the all-important Tomatometer score.
The leading online aggregator isn't changing the way reviews are scored.
Already, over 200 new Tomatometer-approved critics have been identified. The gender split of that group is roughly 70 percent female, compared with 60 percent male for the existing pool of roughly 4,400 critics. (Rotten Tomatoes doesn't expect the existing pool to be impacted by the new rules.)
This summer, a University of Southern California study found that the vast majority of reviews aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes were written by white critics (roughly 82 percent). And nearly as many reviews were penned by men (78 percent).
The revamped criteria will focus on a critic's inpidual qualifications and body of work, versus a particular publication or broadcast outlet. Additionally, the rules have expanded beyond print and broadcast to include newer media platforms, such as podcasts and digital video series with a strong social media presence and audience engagement.
Previously, among other criteria, Tomatometer approval was primarily based on a person's publication or employer. In terms of print rules, a publication had to be a top 10 daily newspaper or weekly, a top 10 magazine or a top 10 entertainment-based publication.
"We've already identified more perse voices," says Jenny Jediny, the critics relations manager at Rotten Tomatoes who spearheaded the criteria changes, which come two years after Fandango bought the online aggregator.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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