Can journalism play the role of 4th estate?

Whenever a group of journalists get together and discuss the future of news,it is always the case that the talk will turn to the professions role as the 4th estate.

As we approach the general and local elections in this country,will journalism provide the service that voters require?

According to Robert Reich this is the criteria for forfilling the democratic principle

Democracy requires at least three things: (1) Important decisions are made in the open. (2) The public and its representatives have an opportunity to debate them, so the decisions can be revised in light of what the public discovers and wants. And (3) those who make the big decisions are accountable to voters.

Journalism should play a role in all three.The question is will it,does it want to and even can it as its budgets are slashed?

My purpose will be to get the leaders “going at each other”

Sky's Adam Boulton sets out his stall on the forthcoming leader debates in tehe general election.

He tells the Independent's Ian Burrell that his purpose will be to get the leaders “going at each other”

Boulton’s role model will be the American presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer, who tries to avoid being a distraction from the candidates. “He has said that if the debates are about me then I have failed humiliatingly and I think that’s absolutely true,” he says. “Because of the expectations of British journalism there could be a little bit of an ego problem but I hope there won’t be an ego problem with me.”

Will tweets and blogs win the next election?

Tweetminster have put together an analysis carried out over the past 12 months of polititians who tweet.

They have found that there are now more MPs tweeting than there are ones blogging,17 per cent of MP's now tweet with 59 pr cent comoing from the Labour benches.

The report also analysed media, journalists and influencers. While established media, like The Economist, The Guardian, Sky News and the Financial Times top the list for most followers, journalists (Channel 4’s @krishgm), bloggers (@timmontgomerie and @iaindale) and activists (@bevaniteellie) receive more mentions and retweets - they and, not the Sun, are more likely to win it on Twitter.

David Cameron's poster shows that the visual billboard image will play a rather large role in this year's election but how about this image which Bob Piper has picked up