March 12, 2018
2.4 A fourth estate
In the 18th century, Edmund Burke named the media a Fourth Estate, and he described this Fourth Estate as instrumental for any nation because it functions as a channel between government and people, as a barometer of public opinion and as a check on the use of power by rulers. In order to do this, the media needed freedom, a completely novel concept at the moment. Political campaigns were becoming media scripted events, and important politicians also had close ties with newspapers, often as editor in chief or financial backer.
Sandra Jacobs, Lotte Salome, Annemarie van Oosten, Damian Trilling, Rutger de Graaf