MSNBC relays a Wall Street Journal report that Apple is in talks with the major entertainment companies to do video iTunes.

I hear a lot of debate about podcasting and what it really means. If you check out Phil Torrone's cool piece on "enhanced podcasts," you can see that podcasting is more about the full use of all DIY media, with audio playing a vital but not all encompassing role. (Torrone's piece for Make is a must read for anyone interested in what the iPod and iTunes means for podcasting and DIY media.)

The iPod is a little, white box. But it means a lot more as we change the way we try to make sense of this world. We're moving out of the mass media, industrial lifestyle. The video iPod tells us once again that we're not on a programmed entertainment schedule.

iPods and podcasts demonstrate that we get the media that we want on our own time. But Apple's efforts are different and some might say is representative of the contradictions that face us all when powerful forces collide. Apple execs are embracing the media giants, who have a mass distribution, which seems to counter the home grown aspects of podcasting and videoblogging.

So, the iPod symbol works different ways. It's a symbol for grass roots, DIY media and the changing view for our world. But it also serves as a symbol for the mass media and the power for controlling distribution. That little white box has power to do a lot for whoever controls it and how it is used.

How is it that a little white box coud be so powereful as a symbol in society? What is the symbolism of the iPod? What is the symbolism of podcasting? By understanding the symbolism can we get a better picture of what podcasting really means to us all?