An exploration of the Fifth Estate landscape through film

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.