This thesis has two purposes: to examine the film and television ‘little man’ comedies of the British comic Charlie Drake in order to rescue him from the neglect that has masked his work, and to recover psycho-analysis as a viable critical methodological tool for understanding comedy. This thesis tests the applicability of psycho-analytic cultural theory to British Television and film comedy by using Drake’s work as a case history; given the scope of the thesis I also draw upon his work on dreams, the Oedipus complex, and castration anxiety as Freud’s work on jokes, humour and the comic was part of a triad of books that explores the trivial in the psychopathology of everyday life. The thesis adopts a psycho-analytic position because the ‘little man’ character(s) played by Drake render them amenable to a Freudian analysis. Much of the research material included in the thesis pertaining to Drake’s private life supports the argument that Drake’s ‘little man’ comedies and the ‘little man’ character he created are psycho-biographical. Similarly, audience research reports provide evidence that men’s appreciation of Drake’s comedies was different to women’s which explains why the psycho-sociological reception of his ‘little man’ character's popular appeal was predetermined.

This thesis investigates the relevance of gatekeeping in the process of contemporary news creation and circulation in Saudi Arabia, using largely qualitative data obtained from the observation of two newspapers and a Twitter microblogger, and from personal interviews with thirteen participants. The researcher conducted participant observation in the newsrooms of the print and online editions of a traditional newspaper, Alriyadh, and of an electronic newspaper, Sabq. He also conducted participant observation of the work of a microblogger, Essam Al Zamil, as well as interviewing Saudi editors-in-chief, journalists, webmasters, bloggers and microbloggers. The central finding of the study is the identification of an important component of contemporary news gatekeeping in Saudi Arabia, viz. post-production gatekeeping. The research illustrates the importance of this element to the field of digital journalism and considers its present and future effects, not only in Saudi Arabia but also internationally. Eight aspects of post-production gatekeeping are identified throughout this study as applying to the process of contemporary media production. These are: editing material after publication, deleting posts and news items, blocking, cyber-attacks, pressure on microbloggers to cease blogging, the effects of arrest, pursuing posters via their IP addresses and dumping hashtags through Twitter. The research also identifies four other significant aspects of gatekeeping in the process of contemporary news creation and circulation in Saudi Arabia, which are: social gatekeeping and women’s issues; patriarchal gatekeeping; religious gatekeeping; and hard-copy versus soft-copy gatekeeping.

This work seeks to consider film acting as an integrated element of cinematic expression, a core aspect of film performance but one which gains additional meaning and commentary via combination and integration with the more traditionally considered aspects of filmmaking. Although ‘performance’ is a widely written and talked about aspect of cinema studies, a clear understanding of acting and performance, their relationship to one another and to the mechanism of filmmaking has until now been absent. When in recent years ‘film performance’ has been offered as an academic focus, the cynosure of the analysis has been the actions of the actor and a language to describe them, rather than the skills employed in relation to the specifically technical demands of the medium. What then do we gain when we consider in detail the organic relationship between those technical demands and the actor’s decisions? This foundational question is addressed here in a number of ways. A range of texts are accessed that purport to consider the discipline ranging between academic analysis and practitioner skills. This combination of approaches enables a rounded consideration of the work of the film actor absent from any one exploration of the field. To fully consider cinematic expression, the skills specific to the technical aspects of filmmaking must also be examined. Within these fields research exists which offers a wider integration of the technical and the aesthetic. However, the specific focus of the texts in question also prevents extended consideration of the integrated nature of the chosen code. To augment the initial research, in-depth analysis of a chosen film is presented to reveal the ways in which integration of raw material and post-production can produce a final realisation of ‘performance’. When acting is positioned as a part of cinematic expression the interrelationships of technical choices and their aesthetic application can be fully examined. By no longer positioning the actor as “doing nothing very well” we can begin to assess the ways in which adaptation and accommodation of the technical needs of cinema feed into the decisions and actions of the actor as they attempt to deliver their character in terms of the requirements of script and director. Defining acting and thus performance enables us to consider their place within a unified film product, one that demonstrates a distinct and essential skill set, a craft as central to filmmaking as cinematography, sound, and editing.

This research is focused on the interrelationship between three themes: the identity of contemporary jazz, the relation between contemporary jazz and popular music, and thirdly, jazz and national identity. Using this triangulation, I examine the constructed nature of musical practice, interrogating the notion that the distinctions between music, whether it is genre specific or geographically determined, are natural and innate. Linking theory to practice, I examine how the areas of my research described above, feed into my role as a professional, contemporary jazz drummer. The restricting effect of defining the role of the contemporary jazz musician in rigid, genre-centred definitions is questioned through examining jazz’s relationship with popular music and the music’s’ standing in the hi-art vs. popular culture debate. This area is practically explored in the performance projects through the juxtaposition of both popular repertoire and technical approaches to popular styles with contemporary jazz performance conventions. The notion of jazz and national identity is examined through reflecting on the personal experiences of my role as an arranger and performer operating in Norway and the UK. Specifically, this research will seek to enhance our understanding of the roles the drummer has to play in negotiating the codes and rules used in this area of creative music making. My research is based on a practice-led methodology pursued through two sets of comparative performance projects that have evolved over the last three and a half years. This work utilizes the process of creating the music, live performances and recordings as case studies for comparison and analysis. The content of each performance project provides a platform for me to engage with the specific areas outlined in the thesis and I use practice as a means of raising and exploring questions and explaining codes and conventions.

Trust is recognised as the construct that makes societies function; not only this but it is understood to be the element that makes them successful, wealthier, healthier and wiser. A problem of the trust construct is that, despite its perceived importance on facilitating modern life, it remains a subject that lacks consensus on its definition. Within literature, when the construct of trust is applied to the Web context, there is further confusion as the construct being referred to as trust in actual fact referring to the construct of confidence. This confusion led to the research in understanding trust and confidence in Web behaviour. In addition to researching the literature, the diary-study interview method was used to investigate into how the constructs of trust and confidence function on the Web. The diary study was designed to act as an observational research method, and in doing so would identify the what and how participants used the Web, with the follow-up interviews extracting the why. When taking the core-concept understanding of trust (as developed within this thesis), it shows there to be a disparity between trust and its applicability to the Web. The study further supports this view, and from this emerges the key finding that Web interactions are facilitated and driven by confidence – not trust. Confidence is the construct that drives the Web; what impacts and influences the behaviour of its users. Secondly, and more crucially, confidence is a construct that cannot be created on the Web per se. It is shaped by an individuals' worldview (optimistic / pessimistic), their disposition to risk, their cultural tendencies, their personalities, all of which are factors that are influenced by, and built up on, real-world experiences. Put simply, confidence is created through real-world experiences and it is the real-world atti-tude of an individual that is carried over to govern the nature of their Web interactions.

Information Systems (IS) Use has been discussed for more than three decades. During this time various perspectives of IS Use are found in the literature, which leads to a complex picture. Thus the main research question is “How to make sense of the IS Use field?” To begin to address this question I discuss the diversity and development of IS Use discourses as contributing to this complexity. The standard ways of understanding diversity and development of perspectives or discourses as paradigms (Burrell and Morgan, etc.) are found to be insufficient. A deeper understanding of what paradigm means is required. Yet, discussion of what paradigms are in philosophy of science (Kuhn, etc.) is controversial and is unable to address both diversity and development in the IS Use field. This thesis argues that Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can provide fruitful understanding of these. This is given an indicative test by investigating ‘what is important’ to the authors of seminal papers who stimulated the main IS Use discourses. A desk study approach was used to aspectually analyse the relevant texts in these papers. The findings are that I) Dooyeweerd's philosophy can provide new insight into the nature of paradigms. II) Dooyeweerd's aspects can provide a rich understanding of the diversity and development of Information Systems Use paradigms. These give one way of making sense of IS Use field that overcomes problems of existing approaches. This way making sense of the IS Use field can contribute: I) To theory, first in IS, by bringing integration to the field of IS Use and stimulating new avenues of research, Second to philosophy of science, by Dooyeweerdian insight into the nature of paradigms; II) To methodology in IS by using Dooyeweerd’s aspects as a tool to investigate what is implicitly held as important to the authors; III) To Dooyeweerd research community by showing the application of it in addressing the diversity and development of IS Use perspectives. Limitations of the research and possible further research are discussed in the conclusion.

Throughout the last two decades, the Kurdish genocide of 1988 has become a significant material in a variety of contexts. Kurdish filmmakers have tried to represent the tragedy in various formats. By comparing their work with the unique testimonies of survivors’ that I have collected through many years of work, it is clear that the impact of the genocide has not been dealt with adequately in contemporary Kurdish cinema. The survivors’ voices are still hidden because their feelings, personal lives, and true stories have not been represented in the works of Kurdish filmmakers. This practice-led research study tries to explore this gap through these significant questions: 1. How can the hidden voices of Kurdish victims of the genocide campaign be cinematized in ways that are currently not explored within Kurdish cinema? 2. In what ways can the victims’ oral testimonies be used to develop a cinematic language that can reveal the hidden impact on survivors? By exploring cinematic form and cinematizing the catastrophe’s impact on the survivors of the 1988 Kurdish genocide campaign, this project tries to reveal out hidden perspectives on the entire tragedy. This study aims to find new methods of representing the Kurdish genocide through different experimental film practice exercises, which aim to create opportunities to expand knowledge on the theme of cinematizing the genocide. I also aim to develop a cinematic language that might create new opportunity for Kurdish filmmakers to articulate themselves through the medium, in particular, to formulate a new approach to the concept of transcendental structure. By reflecting on these experimental pieces of work, I will explain how these exercises will shape the final project: two screenplays and visualisation strategies for one scene a short feature film screenplay, in addition to a documentary based on survivors’ testimonies.

The websites provided by academic libraries are challenged by the rapid developments in information and communication technology (ICT). These developments have created diverse options and channels for information sources that can be accessed easily by users through the Internet. Because of these alternate sources, many users no longer physically visit the library. Instead, they depend on the library’s website to obtain information online, or they use Internet searches to obtain the information they require. This research addresses the following question: How do the users of academic libraries search for information and interact with the libraries’ web interfaces? The research draws on models from the disciplines of information-seeking behaviour (ISB) and human-computer interaction (HCI). A unified model based on the models in ISB and HCI is created and investigated. In addition, a qualitative study has been conducted to investigate users’ information needs, information-seeking behaviours, and difficulties and experiences with the websites of academic libraries. Interpretive case studies were conducted at two universities, one in the UK and one in Kuwait. Qualitative data were collected in interviews, focus groups, and observations of diverse groups of library users. Furthermore, a content analysis approach was applied to analyse the data. The findings revealed seven steps taken in searching for information and interacting with academic libraries’ web interfaces, but exposed variance in the order in which users executed these steps. The findings also revealed several issues regarding the use of library websites to search for information. In particular, these concerned the complexity of finding information, the content organisation of the library websites and the use of incomprehensible terms on the library websites. As a result, the library users relied heavily on Google to find information. The thesis concludes with suggested guidelines for how academic library interfaces can best support the way users search for information, as well as their interactions, experiences and needs. Keywords: information-seeking behaviour, human-computer interaction, users’ needs, user experience, academic library website, usability, content analysis, postgraduate students, academics, library staff, Kuwait, UK.

One of the most problematic issues to face airlines in recent years has been service failure/breakdown. Consequently, the notion of effective recovery, in terms of retaining customer loyalty, has become increasingly important. The aim of this study is to examine incidents of airline service failure and identify optimal recovery strategies. The study evaluates the service failure and recovery strategies in full-service airlines and low-cost carriers, the comparative effectiveness of alternative recovery actions/strategies (e.g. apology, compensation, correction, explanation) and their impact on post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty for a range of failure types. It also examines the mediating effect of emotion and justice on post-recovery behaviour. A total of 387 useable questionnaires were obtained from three different sources: a street intercept survey in Manchester (n=50); an online survey at Salford University (n=52); a Marketest panel survey (n=285). A number of important findings have been obtained from the hypothesis tests. Firstly, the severity of service failure and failure criticality were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, negative word-of-mouth communication (WOM) and customer loyalty. Secondly, the results revealed the following five service recovery actions are particularly effective for airline service recovery: acceptance of responsibility of service failure; correction; compensation; apology and follow-up in writing. Thirdly, the results show that three recovery actions (e.g. compensation; acceptance of responsibility and correction) have a significant impact on customer post-recovery satisfaction when severity is high (>4). The implications of these results are that operations manager and staff can use these five recovery actions to deal with service failure (e.g. acceptance of responsibility of service failure; correction; compensation; apology and follow-up in writing). Frontline staff needs to be aware of customer emotions during service failure incident and good service recovery can therefore avoid negative customer emotion.

This thesis presents the results of a narrative inquiry study conducted in the context of Higher Education Institutions. The study aims to describe and foster understanding of the beliefs, perceptions, and felt constraints of ten academic researchers deeply involved in digital scholarship. Academic research, as one of the four categories of scholarship, is the focus of the analysis. The methods of data collection included in-depth online interviews, field notes, closed blog posts, and follow up dialogues via email and web-telephony. The literature review within this study presents a narrative on scholarship throughout the ages up to the current environment, highlighting the role of technology in assisting different forms of networking, communication, and dissemination of knowledge. It covers aspects of online participation and scholarship such as the open access movement, online networks and communities of practice that ultimately influence academic researchers’ sense of identity and their approaches to digital scholarship. The themes explored in the literature review had a crucial role in informing the interview guide that supported the narrative accounts of the research participants. However, the data collected uncovered a gap in knowledge not anticipated in the literature review, that of power relations between the individual and their institutions. Hence, an additional sociological research lens, that of Pierre Bourdieu, was adopted in order to complete the analysis of the data collected. There were three major stages of analysis: the construction of research narratives as a first pass analysis of the narrative inquiry, a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts, and a Bourdieuian analysis, supported by additional literature, that reveals the complexity of current academic practice in the context of the Participatory Web. This research set out to study the online practices of academic researchers in a changing environment and ended up examining the conflicts between modern and conservative approaches to research scholarship in the context of academic researchers’ practices. This study argues that the Participatory Web, in the context of academic research, can not only empower academic researchers but also place them in contention with traditional and persistent scholarly practice.