"The rise of the press led to the development of an independent institution: the Fourth Estate, central to pluralist democratic processes. In the digital age, the internet and related information and communication technologies are enabling a network power shift - empowering a Fifth Estate. Networked individuals are becoming an independent and highly distributed force for accountability in politics and society. By connecting diverse strands of decades of research with a wide range of case studies, this book explains how this emerging Fifth Estate has been empowered by the ability of ordinary people to search, originate, network, collaborate, and leak information in ways that enhance their informational and communicative power. The Fifth Estate compliments the existing distribution of power in pluralistic societies. It is not a substitute for other estates and more established bases of institutional authority, such as the press and governments, which the Fifth Estate can hold more accountable. However, threats to freedom of expression and privacy online could undermine the promise of the Fifth Estate power shift. To meet this challenge, the book concludes by discussing approaches to the governance and security of the internet and social media that that take advantage of the empowerment of networked individuals and help ensure the vitality the internet can bring to pluralistic processes in democratic politics and across all sectors of society"--

The Fifth Estate, social networks and user-generated content, has changed how businesses need to operate now and into the future. The book offers a guide for corporations and non-profits to develop a social media strategy that aligns with overall communication and marketing goals. Includes case studies.

Two hundred years after her death, Mary Shelley is still alive. She has been granted immunity from death by the Fifth Estate: a vampire-led organization that has kept the world from being overrun by sentient zombies. She is the first of many human storytellers employed to reveal the presence of undead inhabitants on this planet. Others included: Bram Stoker and George Romero. Their works have been used to prepare society for the impending judgment day. Even government organizations such as the CDC have unknowingly joined the effort by issuing contingency plans. However, the world changed, and people are no longer afraid of what goes bump in the night. We are desensitized. In our state of ignorance vampires have become our guardians and zombies have become more menacing and thoughtful. Only faced with the possibility of extinction has humankind come to embrace the reality of a zombie apocalypse. However, it is too late because the attack has already begun. Zombies, like other creatures on Earth, have evolved over the centuries. No longer shiftless and slow, they now rely on guile and science to attack humankind. Their most recent invention is a vaccine for H1NI that will turn its receiver into a full-fledged zombie. The books and movies had it wrong from the beginning. A zombie scratch or bite won’t turn you because zombies don’t leave anything to turn. They are the ultimate predator. Like Shelley’s Frankenstein, the first fictional zombie, only science can make one into a zombie and once humankind labeled the latest flu a global pandemic, the fight was over before it even started.

First published in 1978. Britain’s unions were blamed by many people for the country’s post-war economic decline. Portrayed as greedy wreckers who wanted to run the country, they had become scapegoats for the state of the nation. This anatomy of Britain’s diverse and complex trade union movement sets out to question that widespread opinion. The main argument advanced in the study is that unions in Britain were too weak, not too strong. From the 1940s until the 1970s, Robert Taylor believes, they had failed to achieve the constructive influence over British society that union movements elsewhere in western Europe had managed to gain. Considering the major and medium-sized unions separately, he examines the sudden and rapid growth of unionisation in Britain, the structure of the unions, their effectiveness, the influence they had, their international record, and the nature of trade union democracy.

The Fifth Estate: Think Tanks, Public Policy, and Governance is a comprehensive look at think tanks and the important role they play in shaping public policy and public discourse in the United States. Author James G. McGann illustrates the lasting impact of think tanks in today’s civil society. A survey that McGann conducted among all the leading think tanks in the United States highlights the progress that think tanks in the United States have made and the challenges they have yet to face. McGann clarifies the correlation between think tank research and the policies enacted by the past three presidential administrations by looking at case studies in both foreign and domestic policy. He also describes a phenomenon known as “the revolving door,” where think tanks provide former government officials an opportunity to share insights from public service, remain involved in policy debates, and continue to provide advice and commentary. Based on the history and the level of involvement seen today, the influence of think tanks is unlikely to diminish in the coming years.