The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials

Yuehong Cassandra Tai; Nitheesha Nakka; Khushi Navin Patni; Sarah Rajtmajer; Kevin Munger; Yu Ru Lin; Bruce A. Desmarais

doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05857-1

The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials

Yuehong Cassandra Tai
, Nitheesha Nakka
, Khushi Navin Patni
, Sarah Rajtmajer
, Kevin Munger
, Yu Ru Lin
, Bruce A. Desmarais

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We introduce the Digitally Accountable Public Representation (DAPR) Database, an innovative archive that systematically tracks and analyzes the online communication of federal, state, and local elected officials in the U.S. Focusing on X/Twitter and Facebook, the current database includes 28,834 public officials, their demographic information, and 5,769,904 X/Twitter posts along with 450,972 Facebook posts, dating from January 2020 to December 2024. The database integrates three interconnected datasets: metadata on elected officials, weekly aggregated X data, and weekly aggregated Facebook data. These weekly aggregated datasets provide detailed insights into platform activity, capturing officials’ posting volumes, engagement metrics, and content trends. Our framework ensures ongoing database expansion by incorporating new officials and platforms, maintaining its relevance and research utility for analyzing officials’ digital communication.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	1556
Journal	Scientific Data
Volume	12
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05857-1
State	Published - Dec 2025

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Statistics and Probability
Information Systems
Education
Computer Science Applications
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Library and Information Sciences

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10.1038/s41597-025-05857-1

Cite this

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title = "The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials",

abstract = "We introduce the Digitally Accountable Public Representation (DAPR) Database, an innovative archive that systematically tracks and analyzes the online communication of federal, state, and local elected officials in the U.S. Focusing on X/Twitter and Facebook, the current database includes 28,834 public officials, their demographic information, and 5,769,904 X/Twitter posts along with 450,972 Facebook posts, dating from January 2020 to December 2024. The database integrates three interconnected datasets: metadata on elected officials, weekly aggregated X data, and weekly aggregated Facebook data. These weekly aggregated datasets provide detailed insights into platform activity, capturing officials{\textquoteright} posting volumes, engagement metrics, and content trends. Our framework ensures ongoing database expansion by incorporating new officials and platforms, maintaining its relevance and research utility for analyzing officials{\textquoteright} digital communication.",

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AU - Patni, Khushi Navin

AU - Rajtmajer, Sarah

AU - Munger, Kevin

AU - Lin, Yu Ru

AU - Desmarais, Bruce A.

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The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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