Meaning of " The Fourth Estate" or fourth power

 

Origins of Fourth Estate 

adapted rom thoughtco.com 

The term "fourth estate" is often attributed to British politician Edmund Burke. Thomas Carlyle, in "Heroes and Hero-Worship in History," writes:

Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than them all.

The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the term fourth estate to Lord Brougham in 1823. Others attributed it to English essayist William Hazlitt.

In England, the three estates preceding the fourth estate were the king, the clergy and the commoners.

In the United States, the term fourth estate is sometimes used to place the press alongside the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial.

The fourth estate refers to the watchdog role of the press, one that is important to a functioning democracy.