Between Empowerment And Disempowerment

Taking empowerment as the core concept, this study focuses on a typically disadvantaged and marginalized group——the new generation of migrant workers against the background of China’s social transformation and class differentiation. Via in-depth interviews with many new-generation migrant workers, this dissertation discusses the relationship (including its process, mechanism, result and the factors accountable) between new media and job-searching, one of the most urgent needs of this group. This study shows that in the process of job-searching via new media, new-generation migrant workers go through both empowerment and disempowerment; they realize empowerment mainly though access to recruitment information, support from social network and protection of legal rights; while disempowerment usually stems from failure in discriminating fake information in new media, disability of handling mass information and obsession with entertainment information. Based on empirical research, this study has also made relevant advice on how to make better use of new media in job-searching for new-generation migrant workers.