Fourth Estate

The significance of the fourth estate or the fourth branch of government was that its job was to monitor all of the other branches of government and to make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do. The fourth estate is defined as being the press as a player in medieval power structures, in addition to the clerical, noble and common estates. The fourth government is defined as being the press as an informally structured check on the legislative and judicial branches of government. It is also called the watchdog role, which is a concept of the press as a skeptical and critical monitor of government. It had to make sure that each branch of government stayed within their boundaries and didn’t do something that they weren’t supposed to such as taking the power from one branch and giving it to another. In the watchdog role the founders saw the role of the press as keeping tabs on the people in power.