Letters to editors.

Letters to the editor were once a mainstay of Western newspaper content. With the modern development of the role of journalists as professional providers of public information and argumentation, letters have been relegated to a lesser role. This trend has restricted access to mediated public debate. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, early newspapers in Europe were seen as an extension of the public forum that had developed mainly with the proliferation of coffeehouses. Publications in Great Britain such as the Tattler, the Guardian, and the Spectator Spectator[Spectator] devoted themselves to soliciting and printing letters intended to be read aloud in these coffeehouse debates. Even in this early stage of journalism, letters to the editor were subject to the prejudices of editors. Joseph Addison Addison, Joseph , an editor of the Spectator, for example, saw himself as an arbiter of manners and morals. Thus, letters to the editor were censored or published according to the decision of the editor. Letters to editors Newspapers;letters to