The fourth estate

The fourth estate

Today I’m going to be discussing the fourth estate in the context of journalism.

There are numerous definitions for what constitutes the first three states, but for the example I’ve been looking at the first estate refers to the church and clergymen. The second refers to nobility or the ruling class, and the third refers to the typical person on the street.

Now, the fourth estate is unique in that it in the current climate it is supposed to act as a watchdog over the government, bringing cases of corruption, fraud and other dishonest or dubious behaviour into the public eye. In theory, this makes the government more accountable for their actions, in that it’s not as easy to sweep unpleasant things under the carpet.

In western democracies, this idea does work well usually; problems occur when the press and politicians become a little too close to one another, such as in the case of politicians courting the Murdoch press to help them win elections.

Historical examples of people challenging the government successfully would be something like the Watergate scandal in America, where two reporters by the name of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered dubious behaviour that resulted in Richard Nixon being forced to resign.

A more recent example would be the exposure of the NSA spying by the Guardian newspaper, which has led to the public becoming aware of widespread eavesdropping on internet traffic and public communications. This was not done without consequence, as the Guardian paper later reported people from the British government destroying some of their servers.

In other countries, the fourth estate is limited in challenging the government, through threats to journalists, assassinations, bribery, culture, or from simply being disallowed by the countries own legal framework. This makes the criticising of government in these countries somewhat risky, to say the least.

Lastly, there is an unofficial fifth estate, which refers to online bloggers and those who critically evaluate the press. In theory, this makes sure that the watchers are being watched themselves.