The Internet and the Rise of a Fifth Estate

William H. Dutton

Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford

Prepared for the 2012 China New Media Communication Association (CNMCA) Annual Conference, Macao SAR, China, 6-8 Dec 2012.

Informa(on  

People  

Services  

Technology  

• How  you  get  informa(on  • 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  

Reconfiguring Access: Information, People, Services, Technology

  Irrelevant, Ineffectual, Clicktvisim

  Inherently Democratic, Autocratic

  Social Shaped: Reinforcement Politics

  Enhancing the Communicative Power of Networked Individuals, Enabling a Fifth Estate

Politics and the Internet

•  Oxford Internet Surveys of Britain: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and World Internet Project (WIP)

•  The Global Values Project: OII in collaboration with INSEAD, comScore, WEF, and ictQATAR

•  The Performance of Distributed Problem-Solving Networks (DPSN) Porject (2007-8)

•  The Oxford e-Social Science Project (OeSS), Economic and Social Research Council (2005-12)

•  The Fifth Estate Project, supported by the OII, Oxford Internet Surveys (2003-2012), and June Klein, Electronic Boardroom™

Research Foundations

5

6

First  Port  of  Call  

Search  v  Sites  

Social  Cues  

Centrality    Significance  

Trust  

Collabora(ve  Network  

Organiza(ons  

Empowering Networked Individuals

Enabling  Networked  Individuals  

Source  Informa(on  

Join  &  Create  Networks  

Enhance  Communica(ve  

Power  

Martha Payne, 9 yr old girl writes blog for school project in Scotland: ‘NeverSeconds’

- Produced content: photos & reviews school lunch in 2012

- Distributed on her blog: neverseconds.blogspot.com/

- Censored by her institution (her primary school’s council)

- 8,859,514 pages views

- Fostered debate over the quality of school lunches nationwide and worldwide

  Press since the 18th Century - the ‘Fourth Estate’

  Internet in the 21st - enabling a Fifth Estate

−−

The Fifth Estate

Enabling people to source their own information, and network with other individuals in ways that support distributed social accountability in business and industry, government, politics, and the media.

“[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

The Fourth Estate

Feudal Estates into the 21st Century

Estates Feudal Modern

Clergy Public Intellectuals

Nobility Business, Industry and Economic Elites, including Internet Industrial Elites

Commons Government and Politicians

‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the Mass Media

Mob Civil Society, Networked Individuals, Mobs

Montesquieu’s Tripartite System into the 21st (US Separation of Powers)

Estates Tripartite Modern US Parallel

Courts Judiciary

Monarch Executive

Parliament Legislative

‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the Mass Media

Mob Civil Society, Networked Individuals, Mobs

  Networked Institutions, such as in e-Health

  Networked Individuals:

  going to the Internet for health and medical information

  networking patients, e.g., UK Children With Diabetes Advocacy Group (500 Families)

  networking physicians, e.g., Sermo

Networked Institutions v Networked Individuals

Arenas: Networked Institutions Networked Individuals

News Online journalism, BBC Online, Live Micro-Blogging

Netizens, Citizen Journalists, Bloggers, Whistleblowers, Leaks, Churnalism.org, Hacking Blacklash

Democracy E-Democracy, E-Consultation, e-Voting

Obama campaign, Aung San Suu Kyi, Arab Springs, Anti-Bribery Websites

Education Online Learning, Multimedia Classrooms

Backchannels, Informal Learning, Rate My Teacher

Health and Medical NHS Direct, e-mailing safety alerts

Going to the Internet for health information, Sermo

AMacks  on  the  FiNh  Estate  

Public  Intellectuals  

Business  &  Industrial  Elites  

Government  and  

Regulatory  Agencies  

Press  

Mobs  

• Empirically  Anchored  • Pluralis(c  Democra(c  Accountability  

Value  

• Enemies  of  the  5th  Estate  • Inappropriate  Models  Driving  Regula(on  

Challenges  

• Networked  Individuals  v  Ins(tu(ons  

• Cri(cal  Mass  v  Universal  Access  

New  Perspec(ve  

The Politics of the Fifth Estate

The Internet and the Rise of a Fifth Estate

William H. Dutton

Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford

Prepared for the 2012 China New Media Communication Association (CNMCA) Annual Conference, Macao SAR, China, 6-8 Dec 2012.