Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift.

Not much has changed in the structure of major media in the past few decades. It's a pretty standard setup: first you have the artists, who create the product. Then there are the gatekeepers, the people who decide what work by the artists the consumers will get to see. Next up are the distributors, who handle getting the product to the consumers. And finally you get to the consumers, the people who enjoy the fruits of the artists' labor. Since there are so many artists trying to get their goods into the hands of the masses, the gatekeepers have traditionally acted as a necessary filter in our society, choosing the music, movies, and shows that become a large part of our culture.

But with the democratization that the Internet has made possible, that structure is rapidly changing. Sure, professional gatekeepers still do the majority of the choosing as to what we get to see and here, but regular Joes are starting to take on some of the fun themselves.

Websites like YouTube and MySpace have allowed creative types to share their work with the world much more easily than ever before. While it used to be that people would need to get hard copies of their work into the hands of suits at large companies, now they can just toss it online for all to see. Now that TV and radio aren't the only way to see and hear new things, new avenues have opened up for independent artists — ones that allow instant feedback from anyone who has the time to comment. The only problem is that what used to just be confined to bedrooms is now online; since everyone can post stuff, everyone does. Just because something was made doesn't mean you want to see it, which is why gatekeepers are just as valuable as ever.

However, the nature of gatekeepers is changing drastically. Rather than experts hired by major media companies, more and more regular people are helping shape the media landscape. With the popularity of blogs, anyone can become a filter. Just root through YouTube and MySpace looking for a diamond in the rough. If you've got a good eye, people will notice. People trust many blogs because they're written by people with passion, not huge paychecks (for the most part). Learning about a new band from a blog is much more satisfying than just hearing a song on the radio, as you feel like you had a part in discovering it.

And the big media companies are listening as well. Bands such as The Arcade Fire were initially discovered by bloggers, going on to become surprisingly popular for a band that didn't start with the backing of a major label. Most new artists are still discovered via traditional routes, but it's slowly but surely changing. I don't think we'll ever get to a point where major media companies just throw their hands up and let fans choose what they want to see developed, but I can see a large proportion of new content coming from these new sources as discovered by consumers. It makes sense, doesn't it? Passionate people choosing what they want to see and hear. It should have been like this the whole time; it just took a while for the technology to catch up with us. — A.F.