Forth estate

What is 'the Fourth Estate'?

1) The fourth estate is a name given to the press. The other three estates are courts, parliament and religion. It is thought that the fourth estate acts as a check on how people abuse the other three estates.Is new media technology responsible for the decline in newspapers?

2) During the 1970's, the only way of accessing on demand news was tele-text. This meant that everyone would want the newspaper to find out their local and national news. However since the 1990's the arrival of satellite tv, with 24 hr rolling news channels have made newspapers not so important to peoples lifestyles. So since the interent and tv has provided relatively free news for everyone, newspaper sales have been decreasing. So personally i would say that new media technology has been majorly responsible for the decline in newspapers.What does it mean "maybe the internet is already the cyberspace of the fourth estate"?

3) The fourth estate, as i said earlier, is the press. In someways the internet is now the main force in media technology, providing us with whatever we want when we want it. This means that although the internet has caused the decline in newspapers by providing faster, cheaper access to stories developing around the world, the origional purpose of the fourth estate can still be carried out by these new media technologies.