The Fourth Estate's audience and subject matter consists of issues related to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and other affiliates of George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and the broader Northern Virginia sub-region of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.
Fourth Estate, formerly known the as the Broadside is George Mason University's official student newspaper, it began its life as The Gunston Ledger in 1963.
Its staff of twelve students included a photograph editor, Richard Sparks, who contributed two to four photos to each issue.
The content consisted of campus news, features on GMC faculty and students, engagement and wedding notices, and some commentary.
It was noted in that issue that the name change was part of an effort to remake the paper into more of a news instrument like the early publications of the nation's revolutionary fathers.
In Spring 2007, the paper underwent some large and noticeable changes; the online version of the newspaper was redesigned after years of neglect.
In 2000 its website won an Associated Collegiate Press "Honorable Mention Award" and in spring 2002, student photographer David Manning won the Associated Collegiate Press "Photograph of the Year Award" for his shot of the World Bank protests in Washington, D.C.
The GMU economics graduate (1988-1992) penned her first article for the paper on the advantages of an ethnically diverse learning environment.