The Media vs. the Fourth Estate
To begin with, let me address the term, the Fourth Estate. The nineteenth century historian Carlyle coined the term while pointing back to the three estates defined by Burke:Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important than they all. It is not a figure of speech,
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Whether blogging gives everybody with Internet access a voice to publish their own viewpoints regardless of how well-educated (or not) those viewpoints may be? That's pretty obviously true.
Whether the value of said publishing is considerably more suspect than that of two centuries ago, for the very fact that every body and their cousin can blog? Well, yeah.
Whether such "facts" are swallowed without question due to the fact that they are "published"? Gods, I hope not!
Whether people are going to read your entire journal entry instead of merely skimming it? *shrug* Maybe, but I didn't.
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