The Fifth Element!! ... Erm, I Mean Estate, Yeah!!

What has the 5th estate given rise to? An influx of semi-obsolete formats trying to be "hip to the jive thang", and use our popular-culture internet references against us in their desperate bid to stay relevant.
The above example is more effective than most though, I will admit!

Coupled with this is a completely overwhelming number of 'regular people' being their own news reporters. These days anybody who has an internet connection can make a statement about any given topic they wish and post it instantly, becoming "social news", spreading their unchecked message out there for the world to see.

The same goes for mobile phones. Most of us have them, and most of them have cameras in them, in effect making every Tom, Dick and Harry a 24 hour/7 days a week news crew.
This is excellent in terms of giving the power of information back to the people.
But the problem with that is, most people are stupid.

So we have a lot of stupid stuff floating around out there, stuff that most of us wouldn't even classify as news-worthy, but hey, at least it's ours right? We made it! And we don't have to go crawling on our bellies to the nearest TV station or newspaper to know what's happening in our own backyards. We know what's going on, because we see it, capture it, and share it. Unfiltered, no agenda, just as it is.

The 5th Estate has given us a "multipass" to both give and receive information, let's try not to abuse it! :)