The category work of custodians: Passionate publics and online reviews

This paper explores reviewers as a passionate public, examining their category work in the construction of online reviews within an institutionalized market category: whisky. Centering on the discursive aspects of cultural intermediation in market shaping, we examine the emotion-oriented rhetorical evaluations in online whisky reviews from a US-based alcohol retailer (BevMo.com). Using qualitative analysis of 403 user reviews spanning 99 whisky products (e.g., Scotch, bourbon), this study examines whisky reviewers as a type of passionate public and highlights how their passion for category knowledge also fuels the discursive (re)production of category meanings through its display. Reviewers draw on institutionalized category knowledge to establish credibility in their own member identity construction, while also enacting discursive category work by reproducing market category norms through their demonstrated expertise. Our primary theoretical contribution is the identification of reviewers as a passionate public, theorizing their engagement as a form of category custodianship, a process shaped by both positive and negative emotions. We identify four distinct category work practices in their reviews: (1) authenticating, (2) tutoring, (3) valorizing and (4) matchmaking. We conceptualize ‘category custodians’ as an understudied form of cultural market intermediary who perform a dual producer–consumer role as an outcome of their passionate engagement. This study contributes to the socio-cultural turn in public relations scholarship, arguing that a category lens provides a valuable framework to conduct future research on salient issues with academic and managerial implications.