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The term Fourth Estate refers to the press
Journalism

Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and editorial via a widening spectrum of Media . These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and, more recently, the cellphone....
. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scotland satire writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics the "dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator....
 in the first half of the 19th century. Thomas Macaulay used it in 1828.

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made the observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI or Louis-Auguste de France ruled as List of French monarchs of France and of List of Navarrese monarchs from 1774 until 1791, and then as Popular monarchy from 1791 to 1792....
 summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General
Estates-General of 1789

The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the France French States-General, a general assembly consisting of representatives from all but the poorest segment of the French citizenry....
'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles.






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The term Fourth Estate refers to the press
Journalism

Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and editorial via a widening spectrum of Media . These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and, more recently, the cellphone....
. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scotland satire writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics the "dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator....
 in the first half of the 19th century. Thomas Macaulay used it in 1828.

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made the observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI or Louis-Auguste de France ruled as List of French monarchs of France and of List of Navarrese monarchs from 1774 until 1791, and then as Popular monarchy from 1791 to 1792....
 summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General
Estates-General of 1789

The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the France French States-General, a general assembly consisting of representatives from all but the poorest segment of the French citizenry....
'. 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
French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosophy who, after relocating to Great Britain, served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the British Whig Party party....
, 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

The earliest use of the term fourth Estate to mean the press, is found in Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scotland satire writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics the "dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator....
's book On Heroes and Hero Worship (1841) in which he wrote:

If, indeed, Burke did make the statement Carlyle attributes to him, his 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." In this context, the other three estates are those of the French States-General
French States-General

In France under the Ancient Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French nationalitys....
: the church, the nobility and the commoners.

Burke, as author of Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution. In the twentieth century, it much influenced conservatism and classical liberalism intellectuals, who re-cast Burke's Whig arguments as a critique of Communism and Socialism revolutionary programmes....
, could have had in mind precisely these three estates, or the three referred to by Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding

File:Henry Fielding - Jonathan Wild.pngHenry Fielding was an England novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satire prowess, and as the author of the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling....
 in the quotation below.

Alternative meaning


The term Fourth Estate has less frequently referred to the proletariat
Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons....
 in opposition to the three recognized estates of the French Ancien Régime
Ancien Régime

Ancien R?gime refers primarily to the aristocracy, sociology, and politics system established in France under the Valois Dynasty and House of Bourbon dynasties ....
.

An early citation for this use—earlier than for the one that now prevails—is Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding

File:Henry Fielding - Jonathan Wild.pngHenry Fielding was an England novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satire prowess, and as the author of the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling....
 in Covent Garden Journal (1752):

See also

  • Estates of the realm
    Estates of the realm

    The Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later in some parts of Europe....
    • First Estate
      Estates of the realm

      The Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later in some parts of Europe....
    • Second Estate
      Estates of the realm

      The Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later in some parts of Europe....
    • Third Estate
      Estates of the realm

      The Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later in some parts of Europe....
    • Fifth Estate
      Fifth Estate

      Fifth Estate is a periodical published in Liberty, Tennessee and in Detroit, Michigan. Its editorial collective shares divergent views on the topics the magazine addresses but generally shares an anti-authoritarian outlook and a non-dogmatic, action-oriented approach to change....


External links

  • "" from On Heroes and Hero Worship by Thomas Carlyle
  • "", Section V of French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle, as posted in the online library of World Wide School