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Numerous fi lms of late have been made about the whistleblower organization Wiki Leaks and its founder, Julian Assange, but perhaps the one which has the most applicability to the media studies or ESL/ESL class is The Fifth Estate (2013), an American biopic thriller that attempts to portray the impact Assange’s organization has had on Washington, in particular the incumbent administration, as well as on Fourth Estate media agencies.The Fifth Estate is form of media that is most commonly associated with blogging, microblogging, and other types of media that operate beyondthe realm of Fourth Estate, or mainstream news media. The Fifth Estate often fi nds itself at odds with the Fourth Estate, creating tension not only in global news media, but in global politics as well. It is my hope that this dichotomy can be felt and understood in the classroom as well. This paper serves two main functions: one is to offer a critical review of The Fifth Estate,the Wiki Leaks fi lm. The second is to off er selected salient points, written to initiate exploration and discussion in the media studies class, either in L1 or L2 contexts, on the topic of the Fifth Estate. Under scrutiny is the subject of transparency and Internet privacy and how the fi lm treats these subjects, and how they can be explored by the reader and in the classroom.

Recent MALL studies suggest that there are inherent motivational benefits from implementing MALL technologies in L2 oral communication classrooms, or as extracurricular L2 speaking assignments. In this paper I review current research in Pair Taping (Schneider 1993) and related methods of audio recording of second language (L2) speaking in ELT contexts. Citing Chinnery (2006) and Brenner (2008), I also discuss the shift occurring in the implementation of such methods, suggesting Web-based Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) systems teachers can use in lieu of outdated analog-based methods. Research into the efficacy of MALL-based methods of Pair Taping and similar techniques is yet to be done. This paper offers rationales for future action research in this area.