This LA Times article addresses the downfall of "mass culture." Where the piece differs from many others singing the same tune is that it acknowledges the dominance of hierarchical entities in the development of non-hierarchical media. If we are coming into a new mode of communication, how is it that these avenues are still mediated by the institutions that are supposedly being replaced?
After all, we don't call it "podcasting" because of the peas.

"What's more, much of the supposedly independent and free-spirited techno-culture is being engineered (or rapidly acquired) by a handful of media and technology leviathans: News Corp., Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, the budding General Motors of the Information Age."