UGC NET Paper 1 GA 2018 Dec Solved Paper

The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christian Europe from the medieval period to early modem Europe: the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The term Fourth Estate refers to the press and news media in modem use deriving from Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes and Hero Worship: “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”