Fourth Estate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fourth Estate - Essay Example The news media can also alert the nation to events that may otherwise not have been public, and may perhaps alter the social style of the day. The press are absolutely instrumental in advocacy and the presentation of political (and social) issues (Powe, 1992). One of the most important examples of the power of the Fourth Estate can be seen in the coverage of the Middle East. Every newspaper or TV news channel will present at least one article on the Middle East daily, with much (if not all) of the coverage being negative. Although the press generally try to maintain some form of neutrality to preserve their integrity (Schultz, 1998), there are some areas in which this cannot be upheld in full, and the Fourth Estate has to ensure that it refers to issues in the way that the readers and viewers can understand. The coverage of the Middle East is a perfect example of this. The recent troubles in Libya, for example, have been presented by the media in the Western world almost exclusively from a Westocentric perspective, ensuring that the people of Libya are almost constantly referred to as victims with Gadaffi being portrayed as an evil dictator (e.g. Cobain, 2011). Whatever the personal perspective on this issue is, it is almost impossible to find any news sources that describe the troubles in any other manner; the role of the Fourth Estate here is to uphold the view of the area in this possibly over-simplistic manner. The Fourth Estate has shaped society in this manner, and the majority of people in the Western world would agree with the general principles of this matter. From the description of the concept of the Fourth Estate given above and the example of Libya, it is easy to see that the press easily fills this role and holds an immense social and political power in these first world countries, who usually have an established democracy and a large