The Fifth Estate
So, I had a thought. Most recently inspired by an article in Sports Illustrated about the downfall of a couple of college coaches. The scandals that proved their undoing were first reported on the internet. On sites that were run and read by sports fanatics (I use the original term since I think that these folks qualify). The internet seems to have become the fifth estate. The fourth is the press, but the internet has enabled a fifth estate of the people that gives all a voice. Of course, given the origin of the term, the internet may simply be a re-invention of the third estate as initially stated (priesthood, aristocracy, the commons). More modern interpretation of the estates are, in the sense of the a democracy, the legislative, the executive, the judicial, with the press as the fourth. It is perhaps this modern interpretation that begs for a fifth estate. The people given voice via the internet. Just a thought. I'd like to work it over more, but figure that I'd share early.