The Fourth Estate

What is 'the Fourth Estate'?
The fourth estate refers to the press. The other estates are the courts, religion and parliament. Edmund Burke (18th century) said that the fourth estate was the most important one because it checked on abuses of power by the other three.

Is new media technology responsible for the decline in newspapers?
Teletext has been a faster method for news since the 70's and 24 hour news channels on satelite TV and the internet completely usurped newspapers in the 90's. As new media technologies are providing the news in faster and cheaper ways (The guardian post so much content online that entire issues can often be read online, free of charge), the printed press becomes old news before it is even read.

What does it mean "maybe the internet is already the cyberspace of the fourth estate"?
This means that although the internet has caused the decline in newspapers by providing faster, cheaper access to their content, the origional purpose of the fourth estate can still be carried out by these new media technologies. We can still be told what those in power do not want us to know but it will be from the internet rather than a newspaper.