Dan Gillmor and his company, Grassroots Media Incorporated have introduced HonorTags. They say,
This project stems from our search for ways to help people find the
kinds of content they need, and may have more reason to trust, in a
world where anyone can publish. Not everything in blogs and other sites
is journalism, because not everyone wants to do journalism. HonorTags
is a first step in helping readers and creators alike distinguish among
various forms.
"Distinguish among various forms…" So it seems to be about criticism and genre. I wonder why they state the obvious, that "Not everything in blogs and other sites is journalism." The phrase "to do journalism" is somewhat cloying. I think it means "to report news." But I suppose that is really no more self-explanatory than "to do journalism." What is news? What does it mean to report news? Does slapping a "Journalism" HonorTag on a post make it news?
In a recent fact-laden post I referred to the commander-in-chief of the US imperial aggressor forces as a chimp-faced lying sack-of-shit. Now this is not news to anyone who is paying attention, but would the hyperbole have stood up under the rigorous scrutiny of the genre police if I had HonorTagged it "Journalism?" Is pass-through reporting of news from main stream sources really journalism anyway?
I think a benefit of HonorTags will be the availability of a consistent set of labels for a growing community of writers and producers to use. But the "Fox News" people and CNN alike consider themselves journalists, so I wonder if we will find the tags useful in filtering clear true voices out of the cacaphony of the blogiverse.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
In regard to your reference to “the commander-in-chief of the US imperial aggressor forces as a chimp-faced lying sack-of-shit”, I must disagree. It takes some basic level of intelligence to muster a lie.
Tags — something I thought only dogs (cats, pets, whatever)and soldiers wore so when they get lost or picked up by strangers, their true identity will become known as well as a method of contacting their masters (owners?) in order to return them to their rightful and proper domain.