Fourth Estate

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.

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work "The Fourth Estate" made the observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'"

Primary meaning

In "On Heroes and Hero Worship" (1841), Thomas Carlyle writes:

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 butts, springs up." [Chap. 39, Section V, "The Fourth Estate" in "French Revolution", rpt. in " [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/european/TheFrenchRevolution/chap39.html The French Revolution] ", "World Wide School" (online library), accessed November 18, 2006.] 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.

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):

"Fourth Estate" has referred to "the public press" since at least as far back as the early 1800s. More generally, it has also been used to refer to any group other than the clergy, nobility, or commons that wields political power. [ [http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/wftwarch.pl?092206 Merriam-Webster Online ] ]

ee also

*Estates of the realm
**First Estate
**Second Estate
**Third Estate

Notes

External links

* " [http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/carlyle/heroes/hero5.html The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns] " from "On Heroes and Hero Worship" by Thomas Carlyle
*" [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/european/TheFrenchRevolution/chap39.html The Fourth Estate] ", Section V of "French Revolution" by Thomas Carlyle, as posted in the online library of "World Wide School"

The role of news gathering organizations in society as a check on the abuses of the powerful, and a provider of information needed to keep citizens informed, thus supporting public discourse. -Brian Feeney