ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ethical considerations at two levels of distribution: infrastructure and practice. The regulatory, technical, and economic infrastructures for distribution are shaped by assumptions about the public good, efficiency, and profit that allow certain kinds of media to gain wide circulation while other kinds of media struggle to reach an audience. Through analysis of a range of case studies, this chapter also explores how considerations of audience, cultural contexts, and financing shape media producers’ distribution practices.
At the age of 19, Gary Brolsma became an internet superstar. In 2004, Brolsma, an average teen living in New Jersey, uploaded a brief low-resolution video of himself enthusiastically lip-syncing and bopping along to a Romanian pop song. Once the website newground.com linked to the video on its home page, it became a sensation. Within a couple of months, the video had two million hits, and, as of early 2016, it has almost 23 million views on YouTube.
