fourth estate

views updated May 17 2018

fourth estate Name sometimes given to the press. The phrase was first used by Thomas Babington Macaulay when he wrote (1828) of the House of Commons that: “The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.” This was an expansion of the concept of the three estates – the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons.

fourth estate

views updated May 29 2018

fourth es·tate • n. (the fourth estate) the press; the profession of journalism: copy desks are held together by the bad-news contingent of the fourth estate.

Fourth Estate

views updated May 21 2018

Fourth Estate

the complete body of journalists; the profession of journalismSlang Dictionary, 1874.