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{{Short description|Term for press and news media}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Journalism sidebar}}
The term '''''Fourth Estate''''' or '''''fourth power''''' refers to the press and [[news media]] in their explicit capacity, beyond the reporting of news, of wielding influence in [[politics]].<ref>{{cite web | title=fourth estate | website=Dictionary.com Unabridged | publisher=Random House | url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/fourth-estate | access-date=Jun 28, 2017}}</ref> The derivation of the term arises from the traditional European concept of the three [[estates of the realm]]: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.

The equivalent term ''fourth power'' is somewhat uncommon in [[English language|English]], but it is used in many European languages, including German (''[[:de:Vierte Gewalt|Vierte Gewalt]]''), Italian (''[[:it:quarto potere (sociologia)|quarto potere]]''),  Spanish (''[[:es:Cuarto poder|Cuarto poder]]''), French (''[[:fr:Quatrième pouvoir|Quatrième pouvoir]]''), Swedish (''[[:wiktionary:tredje statsmakten|tredje statsmakten]] [Third Estate]''), Polish ([[:pl:Czwarta_władza|Czwarta Władza]]),  and Russian (''[[:ru:Четвёртая власть|четвёртая власть]]'') to refer to a government's [[separation of powers]] into [[legislature|legislative]], [[Executive (government)|executive]], and [[judiciary|judicial]] branches.

The expression has also been applied to lawyers, to the British [[Queen Consort]] (acting as a free agent independent of her husband), and to the [[proletariat]]. But, generally, the term ''Fourth Estate'' refers to the press and media, emphasizing its role in monitoring and influencing the other branches of government and society.

A [[Fifth Estate]], while not recognized in the same way as the first four, includes bloggers, social media influencers, and other online platforms that can influence public discourse and politics independently of traditional media.<ref>Castells, Manuel. ''The Rise of the Network Society.'' Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.</ref><ref>Shirky, Clay. ''Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.'' Penguin Books, 2008.</ref><ref>Bruns, Axel. ''Gatewatching and News Curation: Collected Essays on Journalism and Digital Communication.'' Peter Lang Publishing, 2015.</ref>

==Etymology==
''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' attributes ("without confirmation") the origin of the term to [[Edmund Burke]], who may have used it in a British parliamentary debate of 19–20 February 1771, on the opening up of press reporting of the [[House of Commons of Great Britain]]. Historian [[Thomas Carlyle]] reported the phrase  in his account of the night's proceedings, published in 1840, attributing it to Burke.<ref name =OED7b>{{OED|estate 7b}}</ref><ref name=Carlyle>{{cite book|last=Carlyle|first=Thomas|title=On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History. Six Lectures. Reported with emendations and additions |chapter-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sartor_Resartus_and_On_Heroes,_Hero-Worship_and_the_Heroic_in_History_(Macmillan)/On_Heroes,_Hero-Worship_and_the_Heroic_in_History/Lecture_5|edition=Macmillan, 1901|date=19 May 1840|publisher=James Fraser|location=London|page=392|chapter=Lecture V: The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns|oclc=2158602}}</ref><ref name=MacK/>

==The press==
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 021 - House of Commons (alt).jpg|thumb|left|Since 1803 in the British House of Commons places in the public gallery (top left) have been reserved for journalists<ref>{{cite web |title=Origins – The Parliamentary Press Gallery |publisher=Parliamentary Press Gallery |url=https://pressgallery.org.uk/2015/03/06/origins/}}</ref>]]In modern use, the term is applied to the press,<ref name=OED7b/> with the earliest use in this sense described by Thomas Carlyle in his book ''[[wikisource:On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History|On Heroes and Hero Worship]]'' (1840): "Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all." (The three estates of the parliament of Britain were: the [[Lords Spiritual]], the [[Lords Temporal]] and the Commons.)<ref name=Carlyle/><ref name=Wilding>{{cite book |last1=Wilding |first1=Norman |last2=Laundy |first2=Philip |title=An Encyclopædia of Parliament |date=1958 |publisher=[[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell]] |location=London |edition=1968 |chapter=Estates of the Realm|page=251}}</ref><ref name =OED7b/> If Burke made the statement Carlyle associates with him, Carlyle may have had the remark in mind when he wrote in his ''French Revolution'' (1837) that "A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up; increases and multiplies, irrepressible, incalculable."<ref>{{cite book
|first=Thomas
|last=Carlyle
|chapter-url               = http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/european/TheFrenchRevolution/chap39.html
 |archive-url       = https://web.archive.org/web/20000122041013/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/european/TheFrenchRevolution/chap39.html
 |archive-date      = 22 January 2000
 |volume            = 1
 |issue=6
|chapter           = Chapter V. The Fourth Estate
 |title             = The French Revolution
 |access-date        = 12 November 2009
}}</ref> In  France the three estates of the [[Estates General (France)|Estates-General]] were: the church, the nobility and enfranchised townsmen.<ref>Esmein (1911)</ref>
Carlyle, however, may have mistaken his attribution: [[Thomas Macknight]], writing in 1858, observes that Burke was merely a [[Teller (elections)|teller]] at the "illustrious nativity of the Fourth Estate".<ref name=MacK>{{cite book|last=Macknight|first=Thomas|chapter=For the Liberty of the Press|title=History of the life and times of Edmund Burke |publisher=Chapman and Hall|location=London|year=1858|volume=1|page=462|oclc=3565018}}</ref> If Burke is excluded, other candidates for coining the term are [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] speaking in Parliament in 1823 or 1824<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ross|first=Charles|date=9 June 1855|title=Replies to Minor Queries|journal=[[Notes and Queries]]|publisher=[[William Thoms]] |location=London |volume=11 |issue=294 |page=452 <!--|access-date=16 December 2010-->}} Ross (October 1800–6 December 1884) was chief parliamentary reporter for ''[[The Times]]''.</ref> and [[Thomas Macaulay]] in an essay of 1828 reviewing ''[[Henry Hallam|Hallam's Constitutional History]]'': "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Macaulay|first=Thomas|date=September 1828|title=Hallam's constitutional history|journal=[[Edinburgh Review|The Edinburgh Review]]|publisher=Longmans|location=London|volume=48|pages=165}}</ref> In 1821, [[William Hazlitt]] applied the term to an individual journalist, [[William Cobbett]], and the phrase soon became well established.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hazlitt|first=William|title=Character of W. Cobbett M. P|year=1835|publisher=J Watson|location=Finsbury, London|page=3|oclc=4451746|quote=He is too much for any single newspaper antagonist...He is a kind of ''fourth estate'' in the politics of the country.}}</ref><ref name= Cotton>{{cite book|last1=de Montaigne|first1=Michel|author-link1=Michel de Montaigne|last2=Cotton|first2=Charles|author-link2=Charles Cotton|editor=Hazlitt, William|title=The Complete Works of Michael de Montaigne|edition=1842|year=1680|publisher=J Templeman|location=London}}</ref>

In 1891, [[Oscar Wilde]] wrote:

{{quotation|In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody &mdash; was it Burke? &mdash; called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wilde|first=Oscar|date=February 1891|title=The Soul of Man under Socialism|journal=[[Fortnightly Review]]|volume=49|issue=290|pages=292–319|title-link=The Soul of Man under Socialism}}</ref>}}

In United States English, the phrase "fourth estate" is contrasted with the "[[fourth branch of government]]", a term that originated because no direct equivalents to the estates of the realm exist in the United States. The "fourth estate" is used to emphasize the independence of the press, while the "fourth branch" suggests that the press is not independent of the government.<ref>Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon. ''Unreliable Sources'' (New York, NY: Lyle Stuart, 1990) {{ISBN|0-8184-0521-X}}</ref>

===The networked Fourth Estate===
[[Yochai Benkler]], author of the 2006 book ''[[The Wealth of Networks]]'', described the "Networked Fourth Estate" in a May 2011 paper published in the ''[[Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review|Harvard Civil Liberties Review]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Benkler|first=Yochai|title=Free Irresponsible Press: Wikileaks and the Battle over the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate|journal=Harv. CR-CLL Rev.|year=2011|volume=46|page=311|url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10900863|access-date=11 December 2022}}</ref> He explains the growth of non-traditional journalistic media on the Internet and how it affects the traditional press using [[WikiLeaks]] as an example. When Benkler was asked to testify in the [[United States v. Bradley Manning|''United States vs. PFC Bradley E. Manning'']] trial, in his statement to the morning 10 July 2013 session of the trial he described the Networked Fourth Estate as the set of practices, organizing models, and technologies that are associated with the free press and provide a public check on the branches of government.<ref name=BManning071013PM>{{cite web|title=US vs Bradley Manning, Volume 17 July 10, 2013 Afternoon Session|work=Freedom of the Press Foundation: Transcripts from Bradley Manning's Trial|url=https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/bradley-manning-transcripts|format=PDF|date=10 July 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=18 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702070821/https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/bradley-manning-transcripts/|archive-date=2 July 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/sites/default/files/07-10-13-pm-session.pdf |title=In The Matter Of: United States vs. PFC Bradley E. Manning - Unofficial Draft-07/10/13 Afternoon Session |website=Freedom of the Press Foundation |access-date=11 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902152343/https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/sites/default/files/07-10-13-pm-session.pdf |archive-date=2 September 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=BManning071013AM>{{cite web|title=US vs Bradley Manning, Volume 17 July 10, 2013 Morning Session|url=https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/sites/default/files/07-10-13-AM-session.pdf |work=Freedom of the Press Foundation: Transcripts from Bradley Manning's Trial |date=10 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130712000544/https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/sites/default/files/07-10-13-AM-session.pdf |archive-date=2013-07-12 |access-date=18 June 2014}}</ref>{{rp|28–29}} 

It differs from the traditional press and the traditional fourth estate in that it has a diverse set of actors instead of a small number of major presses. These actors include small for-profit media organizations, non-profit media organizations, academic centers, and distributed networks of individuals participating in the media process with the larger traditional organizations.<ref name=BManning071013PM/>{{rp|99–100}}

==Alternative meanings==

===Lawyers===
In 1580 [[Michel de Montaigne]] proposed that governments should hold in check a ''fourth estate'' of lawyers selling justice to the rich and denying it to rightful litigants who do not bribe their way to a verdict:
{{quote|
What is more barbarous than to see a nation [...] where justice is lawfully denied him, that hath not wherewithall to pay for it; and that this merchandize hath so great credit, that in a politicall government there should be set up a fourth estate [tr. {{langx|fr|quatriesme estat (old orthography), quatrième état (modern)}}] of Lawyers, breathsellers and pettifoggers [...].}}

Michel de Montaigne, in the translation by [[John Florio]], 1603.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Montaigne |first1=Michel |editor1-last=Saintsbury |editor1-first=George |editor1-link=George Saintsbury |title=The Essays of Montaigne done into English |date=1603 |oclc= 5339117 |publisher=[[David Nutt (publisher)|David Nutt]] |location=London |page=115 |edition=1892|translator-last1= Florio|translator-first1=John |translator-link1= John Florio}}</ref><ref>For a more recent translation, see Hazlitt's edition of 1842:&nbsp;{{cite book|editor=[[William Hazlitt (registrar)|William Hazlitt]]|title=The works of Montaigne|publisher=John Templeman|location=London|publication-date=1842|volume=1|page=45|oclc= 951110840 |quote=What can be more outrageous than to see a nation where, by lawful custom, the office of a Judge is to be bought and sold, where judgments are paid for with ready money, and where justice may be legally denied him that has not the wherewithal to pay...a fourth estate of wrangling lawyers to add to the three ancient ones of the church, nobility and people, which fourth estate, having the laws in their hands, and sovereign power over men's lives and fortunes, make a body separate from the nobility?}}</ref>

===The proletariat===
An early citation for this is [[Henry Fielding]] in ''[[The Covent Garden Journal]]'' (1752):
{{quote|None of our political writers ... take notice of any more than three estates, namely, Kings, Lords, and Commons ... passing by in silence that very large and powerful body which form the fourth estate in this community ... The Mob.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fielding|first=Henry|date=13 June 1752|title=O ye wicked rascallions|journal=Covent Garden Journal|location=London|issue=47}}, Quoted in OED "estate, n, 7b".</ref>}}

[[File:Quarto Stato.jpg|thumb|{{lang|it|[[The Fourth Estate (picture)|Il quarto stato]]}} (1901): a march of strikers in [[Turin]], Italy]]This sense has prevailed in other countries: In Italy, for example, striking workers in 1890s Turin were depicted as {{lang|it|[[The Fourth Estate (picture)|Il quarto stato]]}}—The Fourth Estate—in a painting by [[Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Paulicelli |first=Eugenia |title=The Cambridge companion to modern Italian culture|editor=Barański, Zygmunt G. |editor2=West, Rebecca J. |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|year=2001|page=248|isbn=978-0-521-55982-9}} For his painting, Pellizza transferred the action to his home village of [[Volpedo]].</ref> A political journal of the left, ''[[Quarto Stato]]'', published in [[Milan]], Italy, in 1926, also reflected this meaning.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pugliese|first=Stanislao G.|title=Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|year=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/carlorossellisoc00pugl/page/67 67–69]|isbn=978-0-674-00053-7|url=https://archive.org/details/carlorossellisoc00pugl/page/67}}</ref> 

In response to violence against a textile worker demonstration in [[Fourmies, Nord|Fourmies]], France on [[May Day]] 1891, [[Georges Clemenceau]] said in a speech to the Chamber of Deputies:{{quote|Take care! The dead are strong persuaders. One must pay attention to the dead...I tell you that the primary fact of politics today is the inevitable revolution which is preparing...The Fourth Estate is rising and reaching for the conquest of power. One must take sides. Either you meet the Fourth Estate with violence or you welcome it with open arms. The moment has come to choose.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tuchman|first=Barbara|title=The Proud Tower|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company|year=1962|pages=409}}</ref>}}

Traditionalist philosopher [[Julius Evola]] saw the Fourth Estate as the final point of his historical cycle theory, the regression of the castes: 
{{quotation|[T]here are four stages: in the first stage, the elite has a purely spiritual character, embodying what may be generally called "divine right." This elite expresses an ideal of immaterial virility. In the second stage, the elite has the character of warrior nobility; at the third stage we find the advent of oligarchies of a plutocratic and capitalistic nature, such as they arise in democracies; the fourth and last elite is that of the collectivist and revolutionary leaders of the Fourth Estate.|Julius Evola, ''Men Among The Ruins'', p.&nbsp;164}}

===British queens consort===
In a parliamentary debate of 1789 [[Thomas Powys, 1st Baron Lilford]], [[Member of Parliament|MP]], demanded of [[Minister of the Crown|minister]] [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]] that he should not allow powers of [[Regent|regency]] to "a fourth estate: the queen".<ref>{{cite book|title=Dodsley's Annual Register for 1789|editor=[[Edmund Burke]]|publisher=J Dodsley|location=London|year=1792|volume=31|page=112}} The [[Whig (British political party)|Whigs]] in parliament supported the transfer of power to the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Regent]], rather than the sick king's [[Queen Consort|consort]], [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen Charlotte]].</ref> This was reported by Burke, who, as noted above, went on to use the phrase with the meaning of "press".

=== U.S. Department of Defense ===
{{main|Fourth Estate (Department of Defense)}}
In the United States government's [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], the "fourth estate" (also called the "back office") refers to 28 agencies that do not fall under the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Examples include the [[Defense Technology Security Administration]], [[Defense Technical Information Center]], and [[Defense Information Systems Agency]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense/2018/04/congress-wants-to-get-rid-of-disa-and-six-other-agencies-to-save-money-in-dod/|title=House proposal would eliminate DISA, 6 other agencies to save money in DoD|date=2018-04-17|website=Federal News Network|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/07/25/the-fate-of-disa-and-other-org-chart-changes-in-the-new-defense-policy-bill/|title=The fate of DISA, and other org chart changes in the new defense policy bill|last=Gould|first=Joe|date=2018-07-26|website=Defense News|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-16}}</ref>

==Fiction==
In his novel [[The Fourth Estate (novel)|''The Fourth Estate'']], [[Jeffrey Archer]] wrote: "In May 1789, [[Louis XVI]] summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the '[[Estates-General of 1789|Estates General]]'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, commoners." The book is fiction based on the lives of two real-life [[Press Baron|press baron]]s, [[Robert Maxwell]] and [[Rupert Murdoch]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lyngdoh |first1=Andrew |title=The changing face of the Fourth Estate |url=http://www.easternpanorama.in/index.php/component/content/article/23-2009/may27/155-the-changing-face-of-the-fourth-estate |work=Eastern Panorama |date=17 May 2009 |location=Shillong, India |language=en-gb}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Wiktionary|fourth estate}}{{Library resources box}}
* [[Fourth branch of government]]
* [[Freedom of the press]]
* [[Fifth Estate]]
* [[Glossary of journalism]]
* [[Government by Journalism]]
* [[The Fourth Estate (2018 TV series)]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{EB1911|wstitle=States-General|volume=25 |pages=803–805 |first=Jean Paul Hippolyte Emmanuel Adhémar |last=Esmein |author-link=Adhémar Esmein}}

{{Separation of powers}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Journalism]]
[[Category:Separation of powers]]
[[Category:1770s neologisms]]