Scientific report
The project's aim has been "to analyse the roles and justifications of media use in value creating processes related to those parts of the media and culture industries that build on participation and user activity (social networking sites, search engines, blogs, etc.)". More specifically it has focussed on the justifications and ethical and / or integrity-based values that are the basis for how individuals act in interactive, commercial and digital environments. This objective has remained unchanged over the course of the project. This has been methodically studied through focus groups and individual interviews with media users of various backgrounds and ages. In all significant details the project has followed the original research plan.

Most significant results
The results of the project are related to the more specific research questions that the project was led by, and that the interviews were built around: (a) what kinds of media texts media users contribute with on social networking media, and (b) how media users relate their own media use to the fact that the media industries exploit their activities for financial gain. Here, a number of observations can be made, regarding the interviewees’ relationships with labour and professional life, questions concerning privacy and access to personal data on social media platforms, and valuation practices related to these.

It is well established in more generalizable research that the content production (original works) that media users contribute with to the interactive platforms is modest, while the user function as distributors of materials produced by, for example, the media industries are considerable. Among those interviewed, however, have been several semi-professional media producers (photographers, filmmakers, music practitioners). These have often had more elaborated reflections on the texts that they have uploaded on social media, including clear opinions on what they allow others to share of their productions, respectively what kind of material they restrict access to. It is thus clear differences in approach, and it is clear that the interviewees' relationship with a professional vocation (especially those related to content production) is of great importance for how individuals act on social media platforms, and whether they perceive of what you do as a form of work, or at least related to one's work.

As expected, there are among the informants varying degrees of concern over the business models of the social networking media, and it is apparent that the interviewees occasionally negotiate with themselves about the issues of "privacy", and that their social media use is “paid for” by giving the providers access to their data in order for the users to then be targeted with digitally tailored advertising. Such types of negotiations are to a certain extent provoked by the project’s interview method, but it also becomes of concern for media users when popular network media such as Facebook changes its policies, and/or its measurement methods. There is also substantial uncertainty among the interviewed media users about what the network media algorithms actually do with the data collected. In the interviews conducted, it is also clear that the concern is mainly about "social integrity" (i.e. the possibility that specific other media users such as friends, family and employers / teachers can take part of what they share). The "institutional integrity" (related to the fact that the network operators and platform owners have full access to users activities online), is rarely actively reflected on.

Of course, none of the users interviewed are talking about their actions on social media in terms of work, although many reflect on the fact that social networking media companies generate profits from their data. This is considered to be a price they are willing to pay to get access to these services. This is fully in line with international research where this behaviour is described in terms of "trade-offs" and "fairness". In terms of work, one can say that for media users, this is part of invisible and mainly non-formalized agreements with the providers of network services. In those cases where this is legally regulated in "terms of use", e.g. on Facebook, this is rarely perceived as a formal contract, but more equal to the agreement entered when you click in the box indicating that you accept cookies on various websites. These features are obviously so integrated into social media (and the Internet) architecture that they are not reflected upon. What is rather emphasized in the interview situation are the positive values created for media user, that enriches him or her: i.e. social, cultural and aesthetic values.

In the interview situation is also revealed "translation" practices where informants discuss the Internet business models and functions that follow them. The fact that the activities that the algorithms that transforms user data into the digital audience commodity, and that controls advertising placement and search rankings, is relatively decoupled from social variables such as gender, age, income, etc., is often “translated back” by informants to the very sociological variables that audience research traditionally uses (gender, age, income, education, etc.). In themselves, these translation practices point to the difficulties that media users (as well as media producers) have to understand and evaluate the working procedures of the technical systems on which the social networking media business models are based.


New research questions generated by the project
The new research questions generated concern more specific questions about social media metrics, i.e. all the numerical indicators that surround the use of social media: how many friends or followers you have, how many "likes" a status update aggregate, or how many shares each tweet achieves. Questions about the importance of metrics for the use of social networking media has been developed within the framework of a new research application.

The project's international anchorage
The project is internationally anchored through participation in international conferences where its theoretical framework has been presented and discussed (especially in the project's initial phases) as well as its results (in its later phases), but also through participation in the network COST Action "Dynamics of Virtual Work ". During a stay as visiting professor at the University of Augsburg was also a given a course for Master students based on the project's theoretical framework and methodology.

Research Information outside of the academy
Research information to a general audience has been made in the form of e.g. partaking in the state commission's research anthology, with the text "Värdeskapande och medborgarskap i det digitala samhället ". The project also has been presented and discussed at joint conferences between the academy and the media industry, for example, the conference "Drömmen om cybernetisk feedback" at the Royal Library in Stockholm, and at the conference "Screen after screen" in Tallinn.

The project's two main publications
The two main publications are firstly "Heuristics of the algorithm: Big Data, User Interpretation and Institutional Translation" (co-authored with Jonas Andersson Schwarz), and secondly "Social Media, Labour and the Extended Commodification of the Life-World" (currently in manuscript form). In the first of these articles is discussed the "translation practices" that media users (as well as media producers) use to orient themselves in digital markets. These translation practices are a way for media users to try to come to grips with the technically complex algorithmic processes underlying advertising placement and search engine results, and make them understandable to a non-technically trained user.

The second article deals with issues of social and institutional integrity among the project's informants, and how this can be linked to the informant's relationship with his or her professional life.

The project’s results have mainly been published in open access forums (such as Big Data & Society), and in cases where it has been presented in edited volumes or in other forums without open access, the texts have been posted on the openly accessible pages Academia.edu and Research Gate, through which free access to project results have been ensured.