Beginnings

Conventional journalism first began to emerge in Britain around the turn of the seventeenth century.

By the 1620s, cities such as London were awash with all manner of productions, from ballads and chapbooks to pamphlets and broadsheets. Many of these were as rebellious as they were scurrilous, and most were viewed suspiciously by authorities.

Most numerous among these journalistic pioneers were the Dutch Coranti (or Corantos ), imported from Amsterdam from the 1620s. But these, along with many other popular news organs, were vigorously suppressed by the Crown, which viewed them as vehicles of insurrection.