Careless People is a tell-all book that walks through Facebook’s rampant (and criminally?) inept responses to it’s growing role in global policy, from it’s role in the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar to the election of Donald J. Trump. The book, written by Facebook’s former director of foreign policy Sarah Wynn-Williams, explains that Zuckerberg initially denied the notion that Facebook could ever impact an election but over time starts to see Facebook and social media as a powerful “Digital Fifth Estate”.
The three-estate system used to refer to the Clergy, the Nobles, and the Commoners. In modern times, the three-estate system describes the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Then there’s the newly minted (ahem, circa 1840) Fourth Estate comprised of good ol’ fashioned journalism and newspapers. The Fourth Estate applies pressure on the other estates through shining a spotlight on important or unaddressed issues. Another form of checks and balances. I would lump academia into the Fourth Estate as well. And so does Wikipedia. So. I’m right because an online wiki said so.
Speaking of online wikis, what does a “Digital Fifth Estate” look like?
A Fifth Estate, while not recognized in the same way as the first four, includes bloggers, social media influencers, and other online platforms that can influence public discourse and politics independently of traditional media.
I’ve read about the influence of the “man-o-sphere” and MSNBC is tying itself in knots trying to find “the Joe Rogan of the Left” and I can’t help but roll my eyes. No doubt the Left needs to consider issues facing men more, but the Zune had better luck with a product clone. With the framing of the Fifth Estate though, I understand the desire better. Most people have lost trust in the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Estate explains to me why podcasters, YouTube influencers, and newsletter goblins have so much political sway these days (certainly during the last election) and why news organizations and academic scientists don’t anymore.
Estates are for sale. Billionaires also own major portions of the First, Second, and Third Estates through gifts, bribes, and threat of primaries. Billionaires like the Murdochs and Bezos (RIP The Washington Post) and media conglomerates own major portions of the Fourth Estate. “Mainstream media” has become an effective slur, even when there’s no true meaning behind it. And in places where the Fourth Estate isn’t for sale, you slap them with a lawsuit.
We commoners have lost trust in the Estates, like we lost trust in the Clergy and Nobles in the before times. The Fifth Estate is why “flood the zone with shit” is an effective tactic. We’re not making informed decisions based on answers from educated individuals. We’re making decisions based on vibes and standup comics who host pay-per-view fight clubs. We’re eating Tide Pods to get the toxins out. We’re getting our news from a guy in a car with a backwards hat and sunglasses. We ask fancy autocomplete for answers to our personal problems, to do our work, to write our eulogies.
This shift isn’t lost on the wealthy, billionaires like Musk and Zuckerberg own major portions of the Fifth Estate. They also own the AI. They create bots to keep us engaged on their apps. Why? Because our attention powers their products. They’ve captured and commoditized our attention to auction our eyeballs to advertisers. The flip-side of this system forced on us is that we know our attention has value. If you want two good books on the intersection of attention and billionaires, I recommend Chris Hayes’ book The Sirens’ Call followed up by his other book Twilight of the Elites.
The concept of a digital Fifth Estate is profound to me because it appears effective and it’s the one where I have the most choice. My singular vote pales in comparison to the influence of a well-funded Super PAC. I don’t get to choose who owns my local newspaper or the board of the university. I don’t have a legal team to undo Citizens United. But I do get to choose where I give my time and attention.
Where I find hope, if the Fifth Estate is powerful enough to hoodwink our fellow citizens into authoritarianism, then we –you and me– can seize power from the already powerful. We can give power –our attention– to the trustworthy. We can eradicate the “rich ergo good” fallacy. And the cost of “going indie” in the Fifth Estate is lower than it has ever been right now with a sizable exodus to Mastodon and Bluesky. Sure, all your favorite nazis and Russian botnets might be harder to find on the alternatives, but think about it as an investment in a world that isn’t owned by wealthy people already.
I don’t have the capital to start my own Fourth Estate university or newspaper. But I do have this blog. A minor stake in the Fifth Estate. But my blog plus your blog, mix in some RSS and the power of sharing interesting blogs and podcasts… we might make a dent.