The Valley after all deals with distribution of information on a massive scale. Traditionally this was a position held by either the Government or the Media. The state is still in the game for the usual reason of having access to unparalleled force on demand. The media on the other side has been much diminished by the Net, which is not what you'd expect if you thought they were information gathering and disseminating organizations. They deplore it!
In fact their power stems from the ability to form opinion and synchronize the mood of mass numbers of people. If the world is the Middle Ages then the Media is the Witchfinder General. If the Witch is a person, the tabloids typically deal with it. If the Witch is an idea, the broadsheets do it while congratulating themselves on their distinction to the tabloids.
This is all natural behavior of people, but it becomes focused like a laser on the whims of the opinion making classes. Sometimes journalists, typically of the Harvard School, sometimes those paying them to direct the faucet like advertisers or 'secret source' officials. The media has a similar role to the owner of a military garrison at a strategic river bend. The river and its traffic are wholly natural but the garrison is used to regulate it.
Suppose that the media were not the opinion forming organs of the people. What then? Chaos? Anarchy? Dogs and cats living together? No.
In fact people would naturally talk to each other on the new medium of information. We'd continue to develop tumblrs and 4chans. Thousands of small communities gossiping away about whatever they believe concerns them. Sometimes they would go overboard, but groups have an instinct for self preservation and mostly self regulate.
What would be diminished is the synchronization of opinion. Themes would still exist, perhaps more strongly than before, still a left and a right. Notice how the social justice advocates and NRX formed themselves organically. Neither of these groups can be integrated into the mainstream politics today. It's not that they are too extreme, it is that they evolve too quickly to be controlled at the same rate as before (it's like biology, smaller entities evolve faster). The connection between low church and high church is severed.
Gamergate is some evidence for my hypothesis, just in microcosm. We see a smaller community with one narrative crushed by the larger one with a different narrative. The Media does not like competition.