The Fifth Estate Emerging through the Network of Networks

Item

Title

The Fifth Estate Emerging through the Network of Networks

Abstract/Description

The rise of the press, radio, television and other mass media enabled the development of an independent institution: the ‘Fourth Estate’, central to pluralist democratic processes. The growing use of the Internet and related digital technologies is creating a space for networking individuals in ways that enable a new source of accountability in government, politics and other sectors. This paper explains how this emerging ‘Fifth Estate’ is being established and why this could challenge the influence of other more established bases of institutional authority. It discusses approaches to the governance of this new social and political phenomenon that could nurture the Fifth Estate’s potential for supporting the vitality of liberal democratic societies.

Author/creator

Dutton, William H.

Date

2009

In publication

Prometheus

Volume

27

Issue

1

Pages

1-15

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Conceptual

Keywords

information and communication technologies

democratic institutions

fourth estate

media studies

network society

political studies

Open access/free-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0810-9028

DOI

10.1080/08109020802657453

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (Taylor & Francis)

Full-text PDF Shared by Author (ResearchGate)

Citation

Dutton, W. H. (2009). The Fifth Estate Emerging through the Network of Networks. Prometheus, 27(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08109020802657453

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 19 Citations

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