Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"the press," by 1824, and especially from 1831, British English. For the other three, see estate. Earlier the term had been applied in various senses that did not stick, including "the mob" (1752), "the lawyers" (1825). The extension to the press is perhaps an outgrowth of the former.\nHence, through the light of letters and the liberty of the press, public opinion has risen to the rank of a fourth estate in our constitution; in times of quiet and order, silent and still, but in the collisions of the different branches of our government, deciding as an umpire with unbounded authority. ["Memoir of James Currie, M.D.," 1831]\n
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\n[Newspapers] began to assume some degree of political importance, during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, in England; but it is not until within the last fifty years that they have become, -- as they are now justly styled, -- a Fourth Estate, exercising a more powerful influence on the public affairs of the countries in which they are permitted to circulate freely, than the other three put together.
[Alexander H. Everett, "Address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Bowdoin College," 1834]
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) A hypothetical fourth class of civic subjects, or fourth body (in Britain, after the Crown, and the two Houses of Parliament) which governed legislation. 2 (context idiomatic English) journalism or journalists considered as a group; the press.
WordNet
n. newspaper writers and photographers [syn: press]
newspapers and magazines collectively [syn: journalism, news media]
Wikipedia
The Fourth Estate (or fourth power) is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized. "Fourth Estate" most commonly refers to the news media, especially print journalism or "the press". Thomas Carlyle attributed the origin of the term to Edmund Burke, who used it in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening up of press reporting of the House of Commons of Great Britain. Earlier writers have applied the term to lawyers, to the British queens consort (acting as a free agent, independent of the king), and to the proletariat. The term makes implicit reference to the earlier division of the three Estates of the Realm.
Fourth Estate is a traditional term for the press; it may also refer to "the mob" (as in mob rule) or the proletariat.
Fourth Estate may also refer to:
- Fourth Estate of the pre-Union Scottish Parliament, the Shire Commissioners
- Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins
- The Fourth Estate (novel), by Jeffrey Archer
- The Fourth Estate (film), a 1940 documentary film directed by Paul Rotha.
- The Fourth Estate, a New York weekly newspaper, published as "A Newspaper for the Makers of Newspapers and Investors in Advertising".
- The Fourth Estate, a student newspaper for the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
- The Fourth Estate, a student newspaper for Harrisburg Area Community College
- The Fourth Estate (painting), by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo
- The 4th Estate, a weekly newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia (1969–1977)
- The Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation (journalism), a journalism public benefit news organization in Miami, Florida (2011–Current)
Usage examples of "fourth estate".
Smithback loved the electric atmosphere of a big press conference, called hastily after some dreadful event, packed with city officials and police brass laboring under the misapprehension that they could spin the unruly fourth estate of New York.
Hearst, the Fourth Estate to a level quite unheard of in any time .
Meanwhile, according to Marx, the third estate (the bourgeoisie) was growing richer and richer and the fourth estate (the proletariat) was growing poorer and poorer, and he predicted that in the end, one man would possess all the wealth of the world while the others would be his employees and dependent upon his good will.
May the fourth estate tinue to flourish, especially its many representatives here.
Shortly after I sent my manuscript to a UK publisher, Fourth Estate, their premises were raided by special branch police and their computers confiscated.
I expect the suicide attempt will bring it back into focus for a while, but then a period of quiescence can be expected as the vultures of the fourth estate feast on new carrion.
It has been said that while there just might be honor among thieves, there is absolutely none among journalists, at least insofar as beating a fellow member of the fourth estate out of a storygetting it firstis concerned.
But John Apgar appeared to be entirely fascinated by the Fourth Estate in all its woolly splendour.
He also believed fervently in a philosophy expounded by a certain contingent of the Fourth Estate: Sensationalism sells better than dull facts, so don’.