Behind the scenes: A critical discourse analysis of Botswana government power plays on Facebook during two post-millennial state-owned organizational crises

Simon, Chedza; Rees, Sian; Thomas, Richard

Abstract

This article examines Facebook posts in Botswana to determine how government public relations (PR) practitioners used language to help protect the reputation of two state-owned agencies during times of crisis. For insufficiently prepared PR practitioners, crises can quickly become complex owing to the proliferation of social media which has dramatically reshaped crisis communication in non-Western, multicultural contexts. While crisis communication has drawn more scholarly interest, the way the Botswana Government use language to maintain power and legitimacy during emergencies represents a fresh case study. We use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in our scrutiny of the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) crisis of 2011, and the Botswana Railways (BR) crisis of 2019. The analysis reveals a corporate ideology of economic development used as an underlying manipulative and propagandistic form of organized persuasive communication (OPC) strategy aimed at establishing and maintaining power. The article also demonstrates how, via this strategy, the government uses state power to galvanize support and mobilize audiences to rally behind state-owned organizations.

Citation

Simon, C., Rees, S., & Thomas, R. (2023). Behind the scenes: A critical discourse analysis of Botswana government power plays on Facebook during two post-millennial state-owned organizational crises. Public Relations Inquiry, 12(3), 321-341. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x231200891

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 2, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 7, 2023
• Publication Date: Sep 7, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2024
• Journal: Public Relations Inquiry
• Print ISSN: 2046-147X
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-1488
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 321-341
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x231200891