This thesis addresses YouTube-based programming in Saudi Arabia. It focuses on the bottom-up, professionally generated content (PGC) produced by the Saudi youth exclusively for YouTube between 2010 and 2016. It explores the economic, political and cultural context of YouTube-based programming and is aimed at understanding how the programme makers operate within such a restrictive political and media environment, and the interaction between the content creators, the audiences and the Saudi government. The thesis examines the perspective of the content creators by utilizing ten semi-structured online interviews, and the view of the Saudi audience by employing seven semi-structured offline focus group interviews with twenty-nine participants in Glasgow, Scotland. The interviews were conducted and transcribed in Arabic, then translated into English. This analysis leads to the emergence of four primary themes: limited political and cultural empowerment for young Saudis offline; strong financial empowerment for the content creators; the government as the most powerful actor in the Saudi media scene; and the relevance of the content to the Saudi audience as the main driver for the popularity of YouTube-based programming. The analysis provides insights and implications for policy and practices, arguing that the concept and practices of cultural policy are humble in Saudi Arabia and that there is an urgent need for a political decision to establish a nationwide cultural policy to promote and govern the arts and culture. This policy needs to incorporate both online and offline creativity, including YouTube-based programming.

Energy consumption due to domestic heating is a major contributor to climate change. Kempton (1986) proposed that ‘Mental Models’ of thermostat controls could be linked to energy wasting behaviour. Mental models can be thought of as ‘pictures in the mind’ that help users understand and operate systems. This thesis explored if changes to the heating interface design could influence the mental model held, to promote appropriate behaviour with heating controls. Consideration of bias is essential when undertaking research into mental models. The ‘Tree-Rings’ framework was developed to address this, resulting in the creation of the ‘Quick Association Check’ (QuACK); a method for capturing and analysing mental models and behaviour related to heating controls. QuACk was initially applied to a case study of 6 householders. This revealed a ‘systems level’ approach was necessary to understand behaviour strategies, in contrast to Kempton’s single device focus. Differences in mental models explained differences in self-reported behaviour. Misunderstandings of how heating controls worked together and the influence of thermodynamics on boiler activation, explained variations in consumption between households. Norman’s (1983) ‘7 stages of activity’ was used to produce a design specification for a ‘control panel’ style heating interface. This focused on correcting key misunderstandings in householders’ mental models, that hindered appropriate behaviour. A home heating simulation was developed to allow the design to be compared with a typical presentation of heating controls. The new interface significantly improved the appropriateness of users’ mental models at the system and device levels. More appropriate behaviour was found with specific controls and the duration of goal achievement was significantly increased. These findings have implications for strategies to reduce domestic consumption through behaviour change, and provide insights that can be used to improve the design of home heating interfaces.

This doctoral research contributes to three main fields: the Sociology of Health and Illness (SHI), specifically in the way it speaks to Coeliac Disease; and the field of Big Social Data and Health in general. Research in SHI, has typically focussed on the effects of diagnosis on self-identity, and illness narratives used in adapting to life with chronic disease. While there have been recent studies looking at how general food cultures, obesity and diabetes are visualised on social media, there have been no studies about the visualisation of self-care and identity in relation to Coeliac Disease specifically. Current social research in Coeliac Disease is mainly focused on the psychological impact of being diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and the challenge the gluten free diet can put on individuals. There is little in the literature about how individuals self-manage Coeliac Disease or share identity across social media platforms, or how they use social media to navigate risk. Current literature in the field of Big Social Data and Health, mainly looks at how social media offers opportunities to socially share or disseminate public health information between organisations and the public, as well as how the use of wearable technology and apps are used to quantify health. It does not look at how the chronically ill share symptoms, identity and self-care across social media platforms. This thesis adds to the literature by bringing together the fields of SHI, Big Social Data and Health, and Social Science research into Coeliac Disease to understand and visualise the way Coeliac patients actively use social media platforms in the process of self-care and self-identity. It explores how social media can be used to tell a chronic illness narrative, and thus illustrate the process of diagnosis, and how individuals adapt to life as a Coeliac on the gluten free diet (GFD). In doing so, this research provides an illustrative example of how social media data can be used to both inform and complement research on Coeliac Disease specifically, and the fields of SHI and digital social science more generally.