Infrastructure and Coordinating Collaborative Research — Ceren Budak

Infrastructure and Coordinating Collaborative Research — Ceren Budak

by Ceren Budak

Humanities, Social Sciences & Thought Science — General & History GPResearch and information: generalGPSResearch methods
🎙 Ceren Budak 👥 6K 📅 August 4, 2026 ⏱ 19 min 👁 57 📄 interview 🧭 2026-08-16
Available in: English (current) Français

Keywords

social media algorithmsbrowser extensionpre-registrationinterdisciplinaryaffective polarization

Summary

Ceren Budak, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, discusses a large-scale collaborative research project aimed at testing social media algorithm redesigns through an international peer-reviewed competition. The project grew from a small idea about toxicity into a major effort involving a browser extension to experimentally manipulate what participants see on social media. Budak highlights the challenges of building and maintaining such tools due to platform changes and intellectual property concerns. The team includes experts from computer science, economics, political science, and other fields, ensuring diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives. They received 21 submissions, with teams proposing various interventions. The study uses both survey data (three waves) and observational data on platform engagement. Recruitment was difficult and costly, leading to a convenience sample rather than a nationally representative one. Pre-registration helped streamline first-order analyses, but some aspects, like survey question selection and behavioral data analysis, took longer. Initial findings suggest that algorithm tweaks can reduce affective polarization without necessarily harming engagement. Budak emphasizes the need for creative approaches as platforms become more restrictive, and calls for government and funding support for such expensive and complex research. She acknowledges the study’s limitations, including the non-representative sample and the fact that only five interventions were tested.

205 words

Critical Evaluation

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The interview provides valuable insights into the practical challenges of conducting large-scale field experiments on social media platforms. Budak’s account is rich in detail about the infrastructure needed, such as browser extensions, and the coordination of a multi-disciplinary team. She argues convincingly for the importance of such collaborative efforts, especially as platforms become more restrictive. The argumentation is solid, grounded in her direct experience, and she transparently discusses limitations, such as the convenience sample and the cost of interventions. The value lies in the candid discussion of the research process, which is often omitted from academic papers.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The speaker demonstrates scientific rigor by mentioning pre-registration, robustness checks, and careful causal identification strategies. She acknowledges the limitations of the study, including the non-representative sample and the single time point. The title accurately reflects the content, focusing on infrastructure and coordination. No external sources are cited in the video, but the description links to the symposium page. The interview is a primary account, so the quality of sources is inherent to the speaker’s expertise.

187 words

Title / Content Match

The title accurately reflects the content, which focuses on the infrastructure and coordination of a large collaborative research project.

Quality & Reliability

8/10

The speaker is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, with affiliations in computer science and political studies. She describes a large-scale, pre-registered, international peer-reviewed competition to test social media algorithm redesigns, with a multi-disciplinary team. The account is detailed and transparent about limitations, including convenience sampling and measurement challenges. However, as an interview, it lacks the formal structure of a peer-reviewed paper, and specific results are only summarized.

Key Moments

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

Cited Sources

Concurring Sources

  • SICSS — The Summer Institute in Computational Social Science is the organizing body, and the interview is part of their symposium.

Contribution & Novelties

The interview provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the infrastructure and coordination required for a large-scale, pre-registered field experiment on social media algorithms. It highlights the practical challenges of recruitment, tool maintenance, and interdisciplinary collaboration, which are often not detailed in academic papers. The project itself is novel in its use of an international peer-reviewed competition to test multiple algorithm redesigns simultaneously.

Pour aller plus loin :

102 words

Radar Profile

The radar profile shows high scores in quality of information and global reliability, reflecting the speaker's expertise and transparent discussion. The quantity of information is moderate, as the interview is relatively short, and the technical level is moderate, accessible to a broad audience. The overall balance indicates a credible and informative talk.

Reliability 8/10

💬 No comments were provided for analysis.