No more westerns. No more handguns. No more high noon. The duel has now gone 2.0. Exhibit A: Ashton Kutcher challenges CNN to a Twitter popularity contest. Whoever gets to 1 million followers first wins.

“I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter,” Kutcher says in a video, which was shot from inside a car and was posted on Qik.com. “So I just thought that was just kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media, and I said that, if I beat CNN to 1 million viewers, then I would ding-dong ditch Ted Turner — because I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

Well, here’s Larry King’s response.

OK, so Larry talks about how big CNN is — a media giant. Well of course it’s big. But can a single person take on a media giant? I think many singletons already have! Take a look at the state of the newspaper industry. Advertising income is falling. More marketers are moving their traditional media to new media.

In fact, OfficeMax held their first “blogcast” to promote a new organization line by guru Peter Walsh. The blogger/Twitterer — the lone person with a computer and a voice — has turned the media and PR industries upside down. The media landscape has expanded…EXPLODED.

The Duel 2.0: traditional media vs. new media.

En Garde!