do network technologies change mass communication?

In a very interesting discussion on Underskog (a Norwegian, members-only social networking site) about reader-debates in online newspapers, Ida Torp Halvorsen links to a comment by Joel Stein in latimes.com. Basically, Joel Stein has no wish whatsoever to embrace the technological potentials to engage in a symmetrical interaction with his readers through e-mailing (or commenting). I am of course not very surprised, and I think Stein is quite right. His op-ed explicitly addresses what I believe is the case. Network technologies do not challenge the fundamentally asymmetrical character of mass communication.