• Paid Content, Friday, June 24, 2011 3:16 PM

Once again, the difference between more traditional and online journalism is at issue -- this time regarding Amazon's oh-so-influential customer reviews of products and books. According to a new study, Amazon has an army of unpaid citizen-reviewers, many of whom receive free products.

"Why is that an issue?" asks Paid Content's Laura Hazard Owen. "Professional critics -- at a publication like the New York Times --also receive free books to review, of course. But those critics are paid by the publications they write for, and their job is to review these books objectively. For Amazon's unpaid customer reviewers, the only tangible benefit of their 'job' --and the study indeed found that for top reviewers reviewing is akin to a second 'career,' a 'crossover occupation' -- is any free books and products they receive. The way to keep those freebies flowing is to pump out glowing book reviews."

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