The document discusses the concept of the "Fifth Estate", which refers to a collectivity of individuals who use the internet and social media to hold powerful actors and institutions accountable. It provides examples like a 9-year-old girl in Scotland who blogged about school lunches, garnering over 10 million views and fostering debate. The Fifth Estate empowers citizens by allowing them to access information, connect with others, and have a voice in a way that challenges traditional power structures like government, business, and the press.

1. The Fifth Estate
The Political Dynamics of Empowering Networked Individuals
by
William H. Dutton
Senior Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute
Oxford Martin Fellow, Oxford Martin Institute
Dimension Chair, Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre, Computer Science, Oxford
Visiting Assistant Professor, Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Presentation for the EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2018 Conference, Danube University, Krems, Austria, 3-6 September 2018.

2. - Martha Payne, 9 yr old girl in
Scotland, writes a blog for school
project: ‘NeverSeconds’
- Produced content: photos & reviews
school lunch in 2012
- Posted on her blog:
neverseconds.blogspot.com/
- Censored by her institution (her
primary school’s council)
- Over 10 million page views
- Fostered debate over the quality of
school lunches nationwide and
worldwide

3. Reconfiguring Access to:
Information
People
Services
Technology
• How you get information
• What you know
• How you communicate
• Who you know
• How you obtain services
• From whom, from where
• How you do what you do
• What know-how you require

4. Power Shifts of the Internet: New Conventional Wisdom
Institutions,
such as Gov’t &
Business
Organizations
Citizens,
Consumers

5. Missing a Complex Set of Social and Technical
Changes Summed Up in an Invented Metaphor
The Fifth Estate is a collectivity of individuals
who strategically use the Internet and related
social media to enhance their communicative
power vis-à-vis governments, business, industry
and other actors and institutions.

6. Not a Social Movement, But a Collectivity of
Individuals Holding Powerful Actors Accountable?

7. Early & Narrow Conceptions of Fifth Estate
Bloggers
•Extension of the 4th Estate
Whistleblowers
•Holding the 4th Estate Accountable

8. In the movie,
Daniel Domscheit-
Berg’ with an
editor of The
Guardian: ‘The
New Information
Revolution’ – with
WikiLeaks
‘charting a course’.

9. The Fifth Estate
 Press since the 18th
Century - the ‘Fourth Estate’
 Internet in the 21st -
enabling a Fifth Estate
Internet enabling a critical mass of individuals to
source information, and network in ways that support
distributed social accountability in business, industry,
government, politics & media.

10. The Fourth Estate
• “[Edmund] Burke said there were Three Estates in
Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder,
there sat a Fourth Estate more prominent far than
they all. It is not a figure of speech, or witty saying; it
is a literal fact – very momentous to us in these
times.”
• Thomas Carlyle (1831), Heroes and Hero-Worship,
at www.gutenberg.org.etext/1091

11. Feudal Estates into the 21st Century
Feudal Estates & Mob 21st Century Roles of
Clergy Experts, such as Public
Intellectuals
Nobility Business, Industry and Economic
Elites, Internet Industrial Elites
Commons Government, Politicians &
Regulators
Press (4th Estate) Journalists and the Mass Media
Mob Civil Society, Networked
Individuals, Mobs

12. Montesquieu’s Tripartite System into the 21st
(US Separation of Powers)
Tripartite Modern US Parallel
Courts Judiciary
Monarch Executive
Parliament Legislative
Press as 4th Journalists and the Mass Media
Mob Civil Society, Networked
Individuals, Mobs

13. Cyber, Digital, and e-Democracy
• Web and Social Media in Campaigns
• Polling, Voting: Remote Internet
Campaigns &
Elections
• Voter Guides, Debates
• Public (Mis)Information, Web Sites, Blogs
Information
• Electronic Forums, eConsultation, PEN
• Online Petitions
Policy Shaping
• Services: Tax, Licenses, etc
• eRulemaking, Big Data Analytics
eGovernment

14. Emergence of a New Organizational Form:
Networked Individuals
Source
Information
Join & Create
Networks
Enhance
Communicative
Power

15. Inductivist: Shaped by Surveys, Cases & Studies
Surveys
5th Estate
Concept
Cases
Dynamics,
Strategies
Targeted
Studies

16. Oxford Internet Surveys
• 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013
• Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels
• Multi-Stage Probability Sample
• England, Scotland & Wales
• Respondents: 14 years and older
• Face-to-face Interviews, High Response Rates
• Sponsorship for 2013 from the Nominet Trust, Ofcom, UK
Research Councils, dot.rural
• Component of World Internet Project (WIP)
Quello Search Study
• 2017
• Funding from Google, Inc.
• 14,000 respondents, 2,000 in seven nations

19. First Port of
Call
Search v Sites
Social Cues &
Collaboration
Centrality
Significance
Trust

20. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Spectators
Attentives
Fifth Estate
Percentage of Users
Percentage of Users
Fifth Estate defined by being networked (beyond the home), producing content
(writing blogs, posting text and photos), sourcing (following search), collaborating
(following cues), trusting (content, providers), centrality (viewing net as essential for
information).

21. Demo
• Young
• Urban
• Minorities
SES
• Educated
• Middle &
Upper Middle
• Higher Income
Work
• Managerial-
Professional
• Student
• Employed
Perspective
• Political Efficacy
• Political
Empowerment

22. Arenas: Networked
Institutions
Networked
Individuals
News Online journalism, BBC Online,
Live Micro-Blogging
Netizens, Citizen Journalists,
Bloggers, Whistleblowers,
Leaks, Churnalism.org, Hacking
Blacklash
Government Digital Democracy, E-
Consultation, e-Voting,
Surveillance
Obama campaign, Arab Spring,
Anti-Bribery Websites, 38
Degrees
Education Online Learning, Multimedia
Classrooms, MOOCs
Backchannels, Informal
Learning, Rate My Teacher,
Khan Academy
Health and Medical NHS Direct, e-mailing safety
alerts
Going to the Internet for health
information, networks of
patients, physicians

23. Fifth Estate Strategies
Searching
Sourcing, Creating
Distributing, Leaking
Networking
Collecting Distributed Intelligence

24. • Find through search or social media
• Patient or citizen finds information about problemsSourcing
• Individual creates information
• Martha Payne’s NeverSecondsCreating
• Distribute or leak information to networks
• Whistle Blowers, WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, Edward Snowden
• Generating Media Coverage, #MeToo
Distributing-
Leaking
• Social movements, Self-selected collorative networks
• Sermo, Patients Like MeNetworking
• Aggregate information, observations
• Rate My Teacher, Bribery Websites, Environmental Sensors
Collective
Intelligence

25. Ratings with their Drawbacks
Rate My
Teacher
Amazon Seller
and Product
Ratings
eBay Rating of
Suppliers

27. Attacks on
the Fifth
Estate
Experts
Business &
Industrial
Elites
Government
and
Regulatory
Agencies
Press
The ‘Mob’

28. Threats to Trust & Centrality of 5th
• Filter Bubble or bias of algorithms
• Privacy and surveillance
Search
• Echo chamber
• Mobs
Social Cues and
Collaboration
• Fake News
• Disinformation, Information Warfare
Trust in the Internet
& Social Media
• Rise of entertainment
• Closing of a world on mobile apps
1st Port of Call

29. • Democratic-
Autocratic
• Not Replaced
Networked
Institutions
•Role in
Institutions
•Base of 5th Estate
Networked
Individuals
Fifth Estate Complements Institutions & Expertise and Holds Accountable