Building National Research Infrastructure for Digital Platform Observability at Scale
TL;DR
It is argued that shared infrastructures function as vital institutional interventions to ensure independent, reproducible, and ethical digital media research in a continuously evolving media environment.
Abstract
Digital platforms have fundamentally transformed public communication, yet the capacity to study them is increasingly threatened by restricted data access, opaque algorithmic architectures, and complex legal barriers. Addressing these challenges requires a paradigm shift from isolated, project-based solutions toward shared, national-scale research infrastructures. We present the Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) as a case study of a multi-year initiative designed to facilitate digital media platform observability at scale. The AIO integrates access to computational resources, data governance frameworks, and diverse data sourcing methods, ranging from platform-centric API-harvesting to user-focused data donations. The AIO addresses methodological challenges, ethics, the technical skills gap, and the complexities of regulatory compliance. We argue that shared infrastructures function as vital institutional interventions to ensure independent, reproducible, and ethical digital media research in a continuously evolving media environment