Governance of liquid communication generated through the use of social media by the Botswana government

Abstract

Social networks have increasingly become a platform for liquid communication through which real business transactions take place. Liquid communication in this study refers to records generated by the government on social media for customer service, access to information and direct community involvement needs. The content on social media platforms can be shared and re-tweeted many times beyond the control of the creating agency, resulting in challenges regarding its management. The government of Botswana has been fully active in the use of social media as part of the government’s electronic government programme, thereby generating liquid communication in the process. The unstable nature of liquid communication calls for its governance according to the established records management requirements. Using the Association of Records Managers and Administrators’ (ARMA) Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP®) as a theoretical framework, this qualitative study examined the governance of liquid communication generated through the use of social media by the Botswana government with the view to developing a framework for liquid communication governance (See Table 1.1). Data were collected through interviews with a purposively chosen sample targeting public relation officers and policy makers based at the Botswana Government Communications and Information System (BGCIS) office, which manages the government of Botswana’s social media platforms, as well as records managers and archivists, chief programmer and director, corporate services from other Botswana government departments with the role of information management such as the Botswana National Archives and Records Services (BNARS), the Botswana Communication and Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) (See Table 4.2). The key results suggest that the government of Botswana, through the BGCIS, mainly uses social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate key decisions with the public. The analysis in this study revealed that despite the clear evidence of the Botswana government being active on social media platforms through its pages titled “BWGOVERNMENT”, engaging with the citizens, social media entries were not considered or managed as records by the government. As a result of this no proper measures were put in place to ensure governance of liquid communication. The study revealed that the policy framework was lacking in that there was no social media policy, no measures in place to ensure the integrity of liquid communication, no regard for issues of retention and disposition of liquid communication, as well as a lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the governance of liquid communication in the country. This is despite the fact that the National Archives and Records Services Act of 1978 (as amended in 2007) (NARS Act) (amended in 2007), which is the principal records management legislation, recognises the existence of other records formats such as liquid communication through its definition of a record. The trends around the world show recognition by governments that social media content may constitute records and are managed accordingly. The literature indicates that other governments and organisations in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Australia have social media policies and strategies to guide the management of social media content though less evidence amongst African countries. The study concludes that without a governance framework for liquid communication in place, the government faces the risk of losing evidential information required for legal, administrative, historical and compliance purposes. Additionally, the government may face the risk of losing its digital heritage. This study, therefore, proposes a framework for the governance of liquid communication to guide the government to manage content generated through the use of social media. A further study to make a comparison or do a benchmarking of the maturity of the governance of liquid communication between governments, for example within Southern Africa, using the proposed framework and/or the ARMA Information Governance Maturity Model is recommended.