Social Media as a Catalyst of Good Governance:

A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Social media has revolutionized how information flows among people. Therefore, social media is vital in promoting good governance through citizen participation in decision-making. This study investigated social media’s role as a catalyst for good governance in East Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine the quantity of research on social media as a catalyst of good governance in East Africa; identify the research themes addressed by scholarly articles on social media as a catalyst of good governance in East Africa; examine the authorship patterns of scholarly articles on social media as a catalyst of good governance in East Africa; and, evaluate the visibility of scholarly articles on social media as a catalyst of good governance in East Africa. The study applied a bibliometrics research approach. Data was collected from Google Scholar using Harzing’s “Publish or Perish” software and analyzed in Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer. A total of 999 articles were retrieved for data analysis using keywords in the title. After data cleaning, 601 articles were used for data analysis. The findings indicate that there was a gradual increase in papers on social media for good governance in the last ten years, with a sharp decline over the last two (2) years. Numerous research themes have emerged from diverse disciplines. However, there was little collaboration between authors in the area. The visibility of publications was high but with a significant variance between the leading and the rest. This study recommends that policies on engagement on social media be developed; there is need for training on the use of social media tools for research; and, the need to enhance collaborative efforts among researchers in the discipline to enhance good governance through social media.