TheFifth Estate is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated withbloggers,journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and online social networks. The "Fifth" Estate extends the sequence of the threeclassical estates (nobility, clergy, commoners) and the precedingFourth Estate, essentially the common press. The use of "fifth estate" dates to the1960s counterculture, and in particular the influentialFifth Estate, an underground newspaper first published in Detroit in 1965.Web-based technologies have enhanced the scope and power of the Fifth Estate far beyond the modest and boutique conditions of its beginnings.
Nimmo and Combs asserted in 1992 that political pundits constitute a Fifth Estate.[1] Media researcherStephen D. Cooper argued in 2006 thatbloggers are the Fifth Estate.[2] In 2009, William Dutton argued that the Fifth Estate is not just the blogging community, nor an extension of the media, but "networked individuals" enabled by theInternet, e.g.social media, in ways that can hold the other estates accountable.[3]
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