The Internet and the Fifth Estate

Bill Dutton

Balliol College & Oxford Internet Institute

University of Oxford

Prepared for the Tenth Anglo-Israel Colloquium, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem, 14-17 November 2013.

Role of the Internet: a New Conventional Wisdom

Reconfiguring Access: Information, People, Services, Technology

A New Organizational Form:Enabling Networked Individuals

• 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013• Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels• Multi-Stage Probability Sample • England, Scotland & Wales

• Respondents: 14 years and older

• Face-to-face Interviews, High Response Rates

• Sponsorship for 2013 from the Nominet Trust, Ofcom, UK Research Councils, dot.rural

• Component of World Internet Project (WIP)

Oxford Internet Surveys

Empowering Networked Individuals

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

Internet in the 21st - enabling a Fifth Estate

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The Fifth Estate

Enabling a critical mass of individuals 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

Government Digital Democracy, E-Consultation, e-Voting, Surveillance

Obama campaign, Aung San Suu Kyi, Arab Springs, Anti-Bribery Websites, 38 Degrees

Education Online Learning, Multimedia Classrooms, MOOCs

Backchannels, Informal Learning, Rate My Teacher, Khan Academy

Health and Medical NHS Direct, e-mailing safety alerts

Going to the Internet for health information, networks of patients, physicians

Fifth Estate not a Substitute for Institutions

Fifth Estate Strategies

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

Fifth Estate Strategies

Sermo: a Collaborative Network Organisation

Fifth Estate Strategies

Pollution Monitoring Mobile Apps

Networked Individuals

• Financial Times 5 March 2013• Shandong Province, China• Online exposure of ground water

contamination• Smartphone apps documenting

smog and air pollution• China’s new anti-pollution measures

Fifth Estate Strategies

Enemies of the Fifth Estate

The Politics of Protecting the Fifth Estate

• Oxford Internet Surveys: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and World Internet Project (WIP)

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

• The Performance of Distributed Problem-Solving Networks (DPSN) Project (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 (2003-13), and June Klein, Electronic Boardroom™

Research Foundations