The Fourth Estate

I recently read an interview conducted by Ashoka Changemakers with Brian Conley, director and co-founder of Small World News, in an article titled The Future of Journalism. Small World News is a company provides tools to both professional and citizen journalists. Conley hit on some familiar points, highlighting how citizen journalism has spread due to the digital revolution and how citizen journalists can often obtain stories that mainstream news media cannot in times of adversity. I'd like to focus on something that Conley said about what he saw in the future of citizen journalism. Conley advocates an increase in both the quality and quantity of citizen journalists.

"Citizens all over the world need stronger institutions to train, advise, and capacitate them to create media and judge the media being created by traditional outlets in fairness, depth, and breadth.
I believe it will take a bold commitment to a new, innovative, and open journalism of the future by governments, citizens, and foundations to craft a fourth estate—for not only the 21st century, but to ensure a durable, free press on into the 22nd," said Conley.

The media has already been called "the fourth estate" in the past, a titled given based on its ability to keep the government accountable and in check. However, could the proliferation of citizen journalists be the key to creating a stronger, "true" fourth estate? I can see how it would. With citizen journalists everywhere, it would be more difficult for regimes to do anything outrageous without the high probability of a global outcry. The mainstream news media would be crucial too, of course, to provide professionalism, accountability, and more thorough investigative journalism.

Should then, journalism become a standard part of our education system? When I was in high school, I took an English class, which was focused on journalistic writing. I found it a very successful course, which was able to journalistic principles while still adequately preparing students for the AP English Language and Composition exam. Having journalism focused classes could help create a stronger, more vibrant fourth estate.