When everybody is special, no one is.

While an argument can be made that the fourth estates purpose of informing the masses has long since corrupted into controlling the masses, is the development of this new fifth estate really the solution?

Sure, the fact that any person can report on any topic and make it available to everyone everywhere instantly gets around the issues of corruption on the surface, but it doesn't really change the fact that the vast majority of people will do their reporting with an agenda in mind, whether it be to counter out the agendas of the media to "level the playing Field" or gain support for a relatively unknown cause or possibly even to justify or normalize a previously shunned view or belief. The corruption is just as prevalent as it ever was, the issue that caused the rise of the fifth estate in the first place doesn't seem to have been addressed at all.

Additionally, another argument could be made that the massive influx in citizen journalism has merely diluted the pool, so to speak. There are so many conflicting reports and reviews and opinions that have and haven't been given the appropriate amount of research or written in a comprehensive and, perhaps most importantly, tactful way that the whole mess gets merged into an amorphous blob and now the main stream media looks a lot more credible all of a sudden. In this way the thing that was brought in to counter the corruption of journalism has simply made it stronger.

What is the solution? focus. Focus and the quick exposure and expulsion of corruption from all our social systems. But whether or not this is actually an achievable goal is another matter entirely.

In closing, the emergence of the fifth estate reminded me of an incident that happened many years ago in a ocean side town in America where a dead whale washed up on shore. The carcase was far to big to be removed so they came up with a sure fire way to dispose of it, they planned to surround it with so much gunpowder and munitions that the explosion would disintegrate the entire thing leaving no traces. When the smoke cleared the vast majority of the carcass remained, the only difference was that it was now raining decomposing whale entrails. A good idea at the time that will likely work eventually, but there is going to be a whole lot of mess involved.