Archive of Modern

Political Communication
Guidebook

Glass Box Archive Purdue University

Glass Box Archive Purdue University

Introduction
Politicians and public officials transcribe their ideas and beliefs on current issues through social
media and other platforms. The public use these platforms to determine our views on those officials.
It is important that the public has easy access to their political leaders’ thoughts and actions on
current topics in order to ensure that their elected representatives remain accountable to their
constituents. Also, politicians’ posts across multiple platforms make it difficult for constituents
to view all comments made by their representatives. The Glass Box Archive of Modern Political
Communication offers a way to compare past and present views of officials.

Mission Statement
Our goal is to fill a gap in the historical record, documenting politicians’ growing use of social media platforms to
provide another reference point for historians, journalists, action groups, and constituents alike.

Guiding Principles
• Be practical and accessible to use
• Be adaptable as more content is published and new platforms emerge
• Be transparent

The Team

Creighton Suter Hudson Huth Jacob Glidden

Creighton is a senior in
Professional Writing at
Purdue with experience
in the journalism indus-
try. His past work as a
reporter inspired him
to create the Glass Box
Archive.
Hudson is a senior in
Technical Writing at
Purdue. He is using his
experience writing for
advocacy organizations
to design the Glass Box
Archive as a tool for a
more informed public.
Jacob is a junior in
Computer Graphics
Technology at Purdue.
He is using his past de-
sign work to inform the
user-centered design of
the Glass Box Archive.

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Glass Box Archive
Content Selection Criteria
Priority based on position in government, constituency size, and
breadth of influence
High Priority
Federal Elected Officials
Federal Appointed Officials
State Elected Officials
High-Ranking Public Officials
Large Cities Officials
Top 10 Largest Cities
Low Priority
Middle-America Officials
President & Vice President
Congresspeople
Executive Cabinet
Executive Agency Heads
Federal Judges
Governors, Congress People
State Agency Heads
Mayors pop. >100,000
Medium Priority
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Federal Reserve Board Members
Mayors pop. 25,000 - 100,000
City Councilors pop. >100,000
Municipal Department Heads
Mayors pop. <25,000
Head of Municipal Organizations
City Councilors
Purdue University
Selection of material for the
archive will occur on a hier-
archical basis and expand as
the archive’s resources grow.
Three priority levels have
been identified to aid the se-
lection process.
Who to Include?
Public officials from the des-
ignated categories will have
their social media accounts
archived. Posts will be col-
lected from verified accounts
unless archivists are able to
guarantee the legitimacy of
the account.
How long are posts
collected?
Contents will remain in the
archive forever. Once offi-
cials have left office, their
posts will continue to be ar-
chived for two term lengths.
Presidents and Vice Presi-
dents will have their posts
archived forever.
Archivist Discretion
Glass Box archivist have dis-
cretion to collect posts from
current or former public of-
ficial who may not meet the
selection criteria. Accounts
that see high levels of activi-
ty and follower counts make
for good inclusions in the ar-
chive.
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 Glass Box Archive Purdue University

The archive is designed with

Organization System
Organized within a tag-based infrastructure. Four tags areman-
datory. Others are adaptive.
usability in mind. To ensure
information is accessible, all
posts are accompanied with
a series of tags. Four tags
are mandatory. Additional,
adaptive tags, can be added
by users of the archive.

Mandatory Tags Creating Structure?

Date
Platform
Poster’s Elected Position
Poster’s Party Affiliaton
A digital archive should
remain adaptive, but a
Day, Month, Year foundation needs to be
established to ensure
the end goal is not lost.
Twitter, Facebook
Mandatory tags establish a
Instagram
basic, searchable database.
Governor, Senator,
State Representative
User generated tags?
Democrat, Republican,
The archive’s database-
Libertarian, etc.
inspired structure allows
its contents to be endlessly
searchable. The addition of
user generated tags expands
search capabilities without
Adaptive Tags damaging the integrity of
the original organization.

Event 2016 Rio Olympics, Arab

Spring, Hurricane Katrina
Topic LGBTQ, Immigration
Healthcare, Military
Location Indiana, U.S. Capitol Build-
ing, Federal Reserve
Search
Search
Both basic and advanced
search functions are
available. The basic search
function operates as a basic
keyword search. Advanced
search funtions allow users
to narrow their search by
media type, date range,
member organization, etc.

Keyword Tags, Text of Post

Archivist curated collections
will be featured on the
Advanced Date Range, Media Type, Category,
archive’s homepage.
Organization

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Glass Box Archive Purdue University

Content Examples
An example of archive contents with appropriate tags. Taken
from users from the “High Priority” of the hierarchy

User: Marco Rubio User: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Affiliation: RNC Affiliation: DNC
Date: April 17, 2019 Date: February 6, 2019
Medium: Twitter Medium: Instagram
User account: @marcorubio; https://twitter.com/ User Account: @ocasio2018; https://www.instagram.
marcorubio com/ocasio2018/?hl=en
Link: https://twitter.com/marcorubio/sta- Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BtiofwnBbcL/
tus/1118540046078967808 Post Type: Image
Post Type: Text
Walking into #SOTU like
By allowing US citizens to sue #CastroRegime for .
property stolen from them in #Cuba @realDon- .
aldTrump is ending almost 6 decades of injustice w/ @cpdaction

It also punishes regime for its criminal support of

#MaduroRegime & honors veterans of #Brigade2506
on this 58th anniversary of #BayofPigs

217 Comments, 1114 Shares, 2560 Likes

Tags: Cuba, Donald Trump, Castro, Bay of Pigs, 680425 Likes
Maduro, Venezuela Tags: State of the Union, Women’s Protest, Women
of Congress, House Democratic Women’s Working
Group

Historians and Journalists studying Cuban
relations may be interested to see this post
from Marco Rubio. Constituents can see how
Senator Rubio stands on the issues of US-Cu-
ban and -Venezuelan relations.
Historians and Journalists can use this post
while studying the women’s movement in
congress. Constituents will be able to un-
derstand Ocasio-Cortez’s group affiliation in
congress.

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