Online jobseeking platforms

Online jobseeking platforms are now widespread, but little research has been done so far on what drives them, what they are required for and what their success depends on, as well as how they influence the success of individual jobseekers. This dissertation includes a study on various aspects that potentially affect jobseeking success and pertain to online jobseeking platforms. This dissertation aims to investigate how the use of jobseeking platforms impacts the success of a job search, as well as how the success of that job search is affected by a site’s usability. These aspects were investigated through a jobseeking habits survey answered by 73 participants and analysed to draw conclusions on the sample and wider world. Due to the nature of the sample, a more qualitative approach was also taken, with individual respondents’ answers to an open-ended question also taken into account. The survey respondents were classified into three types: generalist users, specific users and youthful users, and further analysed to obtain a more accurate idea of their jobseeking habits and subsequent success. It was concluded that a higher educational level can be a strong precursor to job search success. Moreover, the use of jobseeking platforms does, in fact, impact the success of a job search, in this case positively.utilização de plataformas de procura de emprego "online" são uma prática corrente. No entanto, pouca investigação foi realizada até ao momento sobre o que as impulsiona, para que são necessárias, assim como qual a maneira que influenciam o sucesso de indivíduos que se encontram à procura de emprego. Esta dissertação inclui um estudo sobre os vários aspetos que podem afetar o sucesso na procura de emprego e que dizem respeito às plataformas de procura de emprego "online", tendo como objetivo investigar como a utilização de plataformas de procura de emprego "online" influencia o sucesso dessa procura de emprego, assim como a maneira que esse sucesso é influenciado pela facilidade de utilização dos sites. Estes aspetos foram investigados através de um questionário sobre hábitos de procura de emprego, preenchido por 73 participantes, e analisado para se poder apurar conclusões sobre a amostra e sobre o mundo em geral. Devido à natureza da amostra, foi também adotada uma abordagem mais qualitativa, em que foram consideradas respostas fornecidas a uma pergunta aberta. Os participantes do questionário foram classificados em três tipos: generalistas, específicos e jovens. De seguida, estes participantes foram analisados mais a fundo para obter uma ideia mais precisa dos seus hábitos no que diz respeito à procura de emprego e respetivo sucesso. Foi concluído que um nível de formação mais elevado pode levar ao sucesso na procura de emprego. A utilização de plataformas de procura de emprego "online" também influencia o sucesso de uma procura, neste caso de forma positiva

Media Consumption and the Construction of Diasporic Identities of Youth of Pakistani Origin in Britain

The topic of this thesis is ‘Media Consumption and the Construction of Diasporic Iden-tities of Youth of Pakistani Origin in Britain’. This research aims to investigate interplay between consumption of media and the construction of identity of young people of Pakistani heritage born and brought up in Britain, known as British-Pakistanis. Role of media has been recognized as a part of social institutions that contribute to formation of identity. The overpowering presence of media in everyday life and penetration of digital media into personal lives relate in many ways to the construction and expression of iden-tities including those of diasporas. The interactive nature of digital media has trans-formed the character of media consumers from passive receivers to producers as well, which also invokes reflexivity leading to discovery and construction of various facets of identity. The identity of Pakistani diaspora, predominantly Muslim, came into focus in the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 because of involvement of young Muslim men in these incidences, which led to association of terrorism with the Muslims and gave rise to phenomenon of ‘Islamophobia’ in which media also played a significant role by portray-ing Muslims in a peculiar way. The research was carried out in two cities London and Bradford. Choosing qualitative method suitable to such research, 20 focus groups were conducted with total of 160 participants in the categories of age groups 18-24 and 25-30 with subcategories of Male only, Female only and Mixed groups. Besides this a ques-tionnaire was also circulated to collect some quantitative data about the consumption pattern in terms of type of media and content accessed. Data was analysed in the light of theories about media and diasporas in globalized world and emergence of Islam and Muslims as security threat to the West in physical as well as ideological sense