Rotten Tomatoes and the Co-opting of Consensus Culture

Rotten Tomatoes, the notorious film review aggregate website, has been shaping the movie choices of audiences for more than a decade. But a recent exposé reveals the site may be rotting from within.

In this episode, we discuss the New York Magazine article “The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes” and its reporting on how the website has become corruptible and is steadily losing its credibility.  We also examine how the site has been vulnerable to manipulation by studios and PR firms alike. So we ask the big question… Is Rotten Tomatoes still a trusted source, or is it time to reconsider how we value artistic consensus? We discuss the biological lure of groupthink, the threat of consensus culture, and whether the public really cares about nuanced criticism versus easy answers.

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