1. The Future of the Internet and The Fifth Estate:
The Internet’s Gift to Democracy
William H. Dutton
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
Prepared for the General Online Research Conference (GOR),
Mannheim, Germany, 6 March 2013.

2. Reconfiguring Access: Information, People, Services, Technology

3. Politics and the Internet
 Irrelevant, Ineffectual, Clicktvisim
 Inherently Democratic, Autocratic
 Social Shaped: Reinforcement Politics
 Enhancing the Communicative Power of
Networked Individuals – Conceptions
of Digital Democracy

4. Politics and the Internet:
Institutional Perspectives

5. A New Organizational Form:
Enabling Networked Individuals

6. Networked Individuals
• Financial Times 5 March 2013
• Shandong Province, China
• Online exposure of ground water
contamination
• Smartphone apps documenting
smog and air pollution
• China rolling out new anti-pollution
measures

7. Research Foundations
• Oxford Internet Surveys of Britain: 2003, 2005,
2007, 2009, 2011 and World Internet Project (WIP)
• The Global Values Project: OII in collaboration with
INSEAD, comScore, WEF, and ictQATAR
• The Performance of Distributed Problem-Solving
Networks (DPSN) Project (2007-8)
• The Oxford e-Social Science Project (OeSS),
Economic and Social Research Council (2005-12)
• The Fifth Estate Project, supported by the OII,
Oxford Internet Surveys (2003-2012), and June
Klein, Electronic Boardroom™

8. Oxford Internet Surveys
• 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 (in the field)
• Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels
• Multi-Stage Probability Sample
• England, Scotland & Wales
• Respondents: 14 years and older
• Face-to-face Interviews, High Response Rates
• Sponsorship for 2011 from the Nominet Trust,
British Library, Ofcom, O2, and ITV.com
• Component of World Internet Project (WIP)

9. 10

10. 11

11. Empowering
Networked
Individuals

12. Enabling Networked Individuals

13. Martha Payne, 9 yr old girl
writes blog for school project in
Scotland: ‘NeverSeconds’
- Produced content: photos &
reviews school lunch in 2012
- Distributed on her blog:
neverseconds.blogspot.com/
- Censored by her institution
(her primary school’s council)
-8,859,514 pages views
-Fostered debate over the
quality of school lunches
nationwide and worldwide

14. The Fifth Estate
 Press since the 18th Century -
the ‘Fourth Estate’
 Internet in the 21st - enabling a
Fifth Estate
−−
Enabling a critical mass of individuals to source
their own information, and network with other
individuals in ways that support distributed social
accountability in business and industry,
government, politics, and the media.

15. The Fourth Estate
“[Edmund] Burke said there were Three Estates
in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery
yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more prominent
far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or
witty saying; it is a literal fact – very momentous
to us in these times.”
Thomas Carlyle (1831), Heroes and Hero-
Worship, at www.gutenberg.org.etext/1091

16. Feudal Estates into the 21st Century
Estates Feudal Modern
Clergy Public Intellectuals
Nobility Business, Industry
and Economic Elites,
including Internet
Industrial Elites
Commons Government and
Politicians
‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the
Mass Media
Mob Civil Society,
Networked
Individuals, Mobs

17. Montesquieu’s Tripartite System into
the 21st (US Separation of Powers)
Estates Tripartite Modern US Parallel
Courts Judiciary
Monarch Executive
Parliament Legislative
‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the
Mass Media
Mob Civil Society,
Networked
Individuals, Mobs

18. Networked Institutions v Networked
Individuals
 Networked Institutions, such as in e-Health
 Networked Individuals:
 going to the Internet for health and medical
information
 networking patients, e.g., UK Children With
Diabetes Advocacy Group (500 Families)
 networking physicians, e.g., Sermo

19. Sermo: a Collaborative Network Organisation

20. Arenas: Networked Institutions Networked Individuals
News Online journalism, BBC Netizens, Citizen
Online, Live Micro-Blogging Journalists, Bloggers,
Whistleblowers, Leaks,
Churnalism.org, Hacking
Blacklash
Democracy E-Democracy, E- Obama campaign, Aung
Consultation, e-Voting San Suu Kyi, Arab Springs,
Anti-Bribery Websites
Education Online Learning, Multimedia Backchannels, Informal
Classrooms Learning, Rate My Teacher
Health and Medical NHS Direct, e-mailing safety Going to the Internet for
alerts health information, Sermo

23. The Fifth Estate?
England Riots & Cleanup

24. Centrality of the Internet, Trust in
Government and Attitudes toward
Internet Regulation over Time
OxIS 2003: N=2,029; OxIS 2005: N=2,185; OxIS 2007 N=2,350. OxIS 2009: N=2,013

26. The Politics of the Fifth Estate

27. The Future of the Internet and The Fifth Estate:
The Internet’s Gift to Democracy
William H. Dutton
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
Prepared for the General Online Research Conference (GOR),
Mannheim, Germany, 6 March 2013.