collective organization for newsgathering. This effort became 
the basis of the Associated Press, which, in turn, sold news 
service to subscribers. In one sense, the real meaning of this 
form of the electric, instant coverage was concealed by the 
mechanical overlay of the visual and industrial patterns of print 
and printing. The specifically electric effect may seem to appear 
in this instance as a centralizing and compressional force. By 
many analysts, the electric revolution has been regarded as a 
continuation of the process of the mechanization of mankind. 
Closer inspection reveals quite a different character. For 
example, the regional press, that had had to rely on postal 
service and political control through the post office, quickly 
escaped from this centre-margin type of monopoly by means of 
the new telegraph services. Even in England, where short 
distances and concentrated population made the railway a 
powerful agent of centralism, the monopoly of London was