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She came to international attention through YouTube by her recorded performances on the boob tube.
Five years hence, Charice has become synonymous to "YouTube"—"a sensation," many would call her—but what many overlook is the fact that it is television that puts her in the minds of the public and initially gave her national exposure. Now a contract talent of Warner Music in the US which requires her months of stay there, her performances on Philippine TV is still what her followers eagerly await for whenever she is in her home country.
Since her release from "exclusivity" binding Charice to Philippine TV network ABS-CBN and its affiliate, Star Records, sometime in 2010, she has had the freedom to appear in all the major VHF television networks (or "free TV") operating in the Philippines, which is just as well.
A generation of difference
Since its inception, TV is still undeniably the most instant and accessible medium by a majority of households worldwide. Even in the digital economy, its viewership is still the measure by which income and celebrity and consumer power is set, notwithstanding YouTube's more than 100million streams a day worldwide. YouTube and the Internet simply made recorded performances effortless, enough to "Broadcast Yourself" in one click and make "You," the "content," "shareable."
That said, the difference between TV and YouTube isn't just the era but the transfer of power this technology has given the viewer: whereas the old medium rendered viewers passive, new media made them active and participatory which wasn't possible with TV until recently. Traditional TV networks still hold control over viewers; the Internet freed them from all constraints — with a few limitations, of course. On the Internet, the best networks can do to control is slam consumers with infringement issues and content-sharing sites like YouTube only need to comply.
At any rate, Charice, the quintessential millenial, has become producer, consumer and product of today's technologies as have her followers, always ready and on hand to record, translate (when needed) and be first to hit "Upload Video" of TV clips of hers on YouTube.
The result is Charice becoming one of the most successful new media products to date. Not bad for someone whose start was joining singing contests on TV as a child, some, in short-lived programs in the Philippines that are difficult to search for even in the Internet's deep cache of archives.
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