The Coffeehouse as a Periodical Medium, 1660–80

Rather than imagine that periodical news is primarily to provide information about the world, it is possible to see its job as starting the discussion necessary to create an authentic public opinion. If one takes that view, it would follow that accurate or important information-always problematical-is not absolutely necessary to its purpose. Its function could be well served even at a time when the news industry was at low tide, which was certainly the case during Restoration England. In the 1670s, with little more than the official London Gazette, the high-brow Philosophical Transactions, the skeletal London Bills of Mortality, and occasional political pamphlets to discuss, there was a vital cultural life and a rising political debate-all because of the opportunity to discuss things in periodic visits to one’s favorite coffeehouse. One did not have to visit every day, any more than one had to see a paper every day, to be shaped by the news consciousness fostered in those surroundings.

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