DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/HSNP-CA18

Defense Date

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Victor Chen

Second Advisor

Tressie Cottom

Third Advisor

Meredith Clark

Abstract

Due to racialized and gendered exclusion and discrimination, Black and women jobseekers do not have the same access to social ties in the labor market as white men. A number of Black Twitter users, particularly Black women, have cultivated networks on Twitter and elsewhere as explicit alternatives to this old boys’ network. This study aimed to understand how workers in creative industries—which tend to be more reliant on referrals—use Twitter to expand their social networks and gain access to job opportunities, and how their use of Twitter differed by race and gender. Four hashtags were queried through the Twitter application programming interface—#Reignydayjobs, #blkcreatives, #creativejobs, and #jobsearch—the first two of which are used extensively by Black creatives seeking opportunities and networking within their field. The tweets gathered through this process were analyzed using digital ethnographic methods in order to illuminate how social media job searching and networking behaviors differ by race and gender. As a result of this study, there were some gender and racial differences in how hashtags were used to network and find opportunities , as well as the use of identity based hashtags among Black individuals , more specifically Black women.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-22-2020

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