Electronic message journaling is the process of retaining information relating to electronic messages. In this context, electronic messages are defined as any type of electronic communication data structure. Historically this was an electronic mail, but it may also include instant messages, audio messages (such as those in VoIP), text messages, facsimile messages, or other user collaboration protocol data structures. Beginning about 2005 electronic messages began to include social media that included user-generated content such as blogs, discussion forums, posts, chats, tweets, podcasting, pins, digital images, video and audio files. Several implementation variations exist, altering when, what, and how information is retained. Background Archival of electronic messages has become a concern in modern society as regulations and compliance requirements for businesses have become more prevalent with notable Congressional acts, such as Sarbanes Oxley. Other compliance areas of concern are those dealing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 17a-4, NASD 3010, HIPAA, the Data Protection Act, and the Patriot Act. Several large corporations lost significant amounts of money because of their failure to meet these compliance requirements. Morgan Stanley had a $1.45 billion judgment against it and Merrill Lynch was issued a $2.5 million fine because of its inability to reproduce e-mail transmissions. Because of growing concerns of similar repercussions, major corporations are implementing electronic message journaling to meet compliance requirements. Overview A communication system recognizes and identifies any new outgoing or incoming message. It then creates a journal message containing information extracted from the new outgoing or incoming message. The journal message is then processed for storage while the new outgoing or incoming message is processed normally. Then, at a time of audit, reviewers may search and analyze stored journal messages. E-mail journaling is typically done at the mail server. Journal message The journal message contains, at a minimum, the following information: a copy of the content of the actual message, any related metadata such as time, date, and individuals involved in the communication. More information may be included, such as a physical location of the message originator/recipient(s), a computer identifier of the message originator/recipient(s), or a class/category of message. The journal message should maintain the same transport format as the actual message so that existing communication infrastructure can be utilized. For example, an e-mail journaling message will, itself, be an e-mail message containing the journaling information as either attachments or in the body of the journaling message and may