Historical Context: back in 2013, I registered a domain and hired a designer to work on a logo for something called MuckHacker.com. I also registered a short domain to go along with it, https://muck.cc. The main goal was to launch my own group writer blog as a way to put myself into the same mindset as the publishers we were serving as customers at Parse.ly. The topical focus was going to be media criticism. This post laid out why I picked the name “MuckHacker”. Eventually, this project became a “Custom Domain” at Medium.com. But, over time, I relocated the “MuckHacker content” that was published over the years back to this blog. All the posts from the MuckHacker group blog, which operated from 2014-2017, can be found via this post listing with the “muckhacker” tag.
Some definitions of related terms may be helpful:
- muck, n: something sordid or corrupt
- hack, n: a colloquial term for a writer or journalist
- hacker, n: an enthusiastic or skillful computer programmer, often associated with the Free Software movement
- hacker, n: someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network
- muck, v: to mishandle or spoil something
- hack, v: to cut with rough or heavy blows
- muckraker, n: a writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports to perform an auditing or watchdog function
Therefore:
- muckhacker, n: modern digital journalist who seeks the truth through the application of technology and programming skills
Data leaks like The Panama Papers, The Snowden Archive, and The Afghan War Logs are just the beginning.
To be a muckhacker is to understand that in a world where Internet propaganda is mass-manufactured by governments and where the lines between content and advertising are increasingly blurred, merely seeking a real-world truth is not enough. We must also unearth the falsehoods masquerading as truth — because today, mass manipulation is not only possible, but also pervasive.
2 thoughts on “What is a muckhacker?”