Blogs and online video may have changed the media landscape, but Richard Schickel says that it would be a mistake to confuse user-generated opinions with professional arts criticism. “Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object)… Opinion — thumbs up, thumbs down — is the least important aspect of reviewing.”