I get assignments as a freelancer. They're often to write about something or someone that's paid for ad space, so there's an unspoken "play nice" between the lines of the assignment.
When I did my undergrad, it was for creative writing with a fiction emphasis, and I picked up a couple of minors to beef out my soft skills with people (who are still a mystery). I didn't even look at journalism. So I've had to learn quite a bit on the fly, and one thing has been one writes for the person that pays - in my case, it's the advertisers who pay the owner/publisher who pays me.
I was recently assigned to write a piece about a particular podcast. No description in my assignment, just the title, contact information for further calls, questions, or to set up an interview, due date, and number of words. I found it on my player, downloaded some episodes and got to listening.
Turns out, I am the complete opposite to their target audience, and I wouldn't pick their material for myself in any way. I probably wouldn't be able to find it without expressly looking for it, not with the algorithms at work these days.
One thing many people forget as consumers, and which can carry into the roles of reviewer online, is just because you aren't the target audience for a work, it can still be judged on its quality.
My job as a reviewer, both for this editorial and for books I read, is to gauge the quality and guide the right audience to a work. I like asking myself "who would get the most out of this?" I also like the question "who comes looking for a thing like this and what should they know before picking it up?"
Those are the kind of reviews I like, and that I like to give.
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