What is "the fourth estate"?

Pagiedamon

"The term Fourth Estate refers to the press. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate Dec 23 08, 11:09 PM

edmund80

A group other than the usual powers (for instance the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government) which wields a great influence in the politics of a country. This fourth estate is usually taken to mean the press. "The term Fourth Estate refers to the press. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century. Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made the observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estates General'. 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, Edmund Burke, 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." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fourth%20estate Dec 23 08, 11:16 PM

runaway_drive

"The term Fourth Estate refers to the press. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate Dec 24 08, 10:38 AM

author

Now it refers to the press, but I thought it historically had a broader meaning? Dec 24 08, 1:21 PM