Fifth estate

[phreesh]

I’ve heard the media called the fifth estate. Why is it called this and what are the first four estates? Also, does anyone know who originally labeled them this?

[yabob]

The press is traditionally the FOURTH estate. The term “fifth estate” is sometimes used by people wanting to emphasize the importance of some group deserving of the title, but a common usage has not been established.

“fifth estate” from the AHD:

A class or group in society other than the nobility, the clergy, the middle class, and the press.

The term is sometimes applied to electronic, rather than print, media. To my way of thinking, radio / tv / newspaper / magazine / internet journalists and commentators are all collectively estate number 4.

Anyway, the first three were traditionally the nobility, the clergy and the common people. In more modern times, the government, organized religion and the people, though nobody ever seems to use the divisions except to refer to the media as an estate unto themselves.

[samclem]

Hi, phreesh. I think you mean that you have heard the media called the fourth estate, not the fifth

As the phrase originated in England, the first three would be the King, the Lords, and the Commons.

In the US, it would be the Excutive, the Senate and the House.

While Edmund Burke is credited with the phrase, you can learn more from this site which simply copies others.

[yabob]

The usage for nobility / clergy / the common people goes back to France’s States General:

From the Columbia Encyclopedia:

States General

Former French parliament that consisted of three estates: nobility, clergy, and commons. First summoned 1302, it declined in importance as the power of the crown grew. It was not called at all 1614–1789 when the crown needed to institute fiscal reforms to avoid financial collapse. Once called, the demands made by the States General formed the first phase in the French Revolution. States General is also the name of the Dutch parliament.

Burke was probably drawing a parallel to the earlier usage when he coined the “fourth”.

[woolly]

*Originally posted by samclem *
] As the phrase originated in England, the first three would be the King, the Lords, and the Commons.

I think you are incorrect on both counts.

I’d endose yabobs derivation of the French Estates General.

Acording to Brewer’s Dictionary Of Phrase & Fable, the Three Estates of the English (UK?) Realm are The Lords Spiritural, The Lords Temporal and the Commons.

Note that it does not include the Sovereign, in the same manner the French Estates General did not. The estates are the base on which the realm (i.e. the Crown) stands.

As to what the US would class as their three estates, I would be guessing, but maybe The Supreme Court, The House and The Congress?

[Sigene]

I always thought the 3 estates were the
Judicial
Legislative
Executive
branches of government

[TomH]

Acording to Brewer’s Dictionary Of Phrase & Fable, the Three Estates of the English (UK?) Realm are The Lords Spiritural, The Lords Temporal and the Commons.

And the Lords Spiritual in this case are the Bishops who sit in the Lords, so it essentially means the Church, the Lords and the Commons.

[samclem]

I defer to the info provided by yabob and others.

I was probably trying too hard to show what the estates were when the phrase “fourth estate” came into being in England.

[Northern_Piper]

“the fifth estate” is also the name of an investigative journalism program on the CBC. They give this explanation for their name: What’s in a Name? They add that in one of the Oxford Dictionaries, the “fifth estate” will be listed as meaning the electronic media.