Fourth Estate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Fourth Estate (disambiguation).
The term Fourth Estate refers to the press, both in its explicit capacity of advocacy and in its implicit ability to frame political issues. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century.
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[edit] Primary meaning
In On Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Thomas Carlyle writes:
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This was not Carlyle's first use of the term. If, indeed, Burke did make the statement Carlyle attributes to him, Burke's remark may have been in the back of Carlyle's mind when he wrote in his French Revolution (1837), "A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up."[2] In this context, the other three estates are those of the French States-General: the church, the nobility and the commoners, although in practice the latter were usually represented by the middle class bourgeoisie.
Burke, as author of Reflections on the Revolution in France, could have had in mind precisely these three estates, or the three referred to by Henry Fielding in the quotation below.
[edit] Alternative meaning
The term Fourth Estate has less frequently referred to the proletariat in opposition to the three recognized estates of the French Ancien Régime.
An early citation for this use—earlier than for the one that now prevails—is Henry Fielding in Covent Garden Journal (1752):
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Qtd. from Thomas Carlyle, "The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns [Lecture V, May 19, 1840," from On Heroes and Hero Worship, The Victorian Web, accessed November 18, 2006; qtd. also in part in "The Mass Media as Fourth Estate," in Cultsock.com.
- ^ Chap. 39, Section V: "The Fourth Estate," in French Revolution, rpt. in The French Revolution, World Wide School (online library), accessed November 18, 2006.
- ^ Quoted in worldofquotes.com.
Topics in Journalism |
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Professional Issues |
Ethics & News Values Journalism Education & Fourth Estate |
Social Impact |
Infotainment & Celebrity |
News media |
Newspapers & Magazines |
Roles |
Journalist, Reporter, Editor, News presenter, Photo Journalist, Columnist, Visual Journalist |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns," from On Heroes and Hero Worship by Thomas Carlyle.
- "Section V: The Fourth Estate" of French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle, as posted in the online library of World Wide School.
- The Fourth Estate: Exploring the Future of Media (blog), "a regular newsletter and weblog . . . on the future of media," by Mike Walsh, who describes himself as a "leading authority on digital media."