OpenBrief
Log in Sign up
What the picker changes
  • Top topics digest — the cards score the selected period against the prior 4 weeks.
  • 12-week heatmap & outlet matrix — show the 12 weeks ending at the selected week (they slide back with the picker, they aren’t a fixed snapshot).
  • Per-topic volume / alias drift — same 12-week trailing window, anchored on the selected period.
  • Coverage gap quadrant — scores the selected period against the 12 weeks before it (not including it).
  • Anomaly cards — only show alerts the detector fired during the selected period. Quiet weeks legitimately show none.
What stays as-is
  • Outlet orientation strip / lean colours — context-only, drawn from the last 12 weeks of activity regardless.
  • Co-occurrence graph — recent-activity anchored, not picker-driven.
  • Source & topic profiles — all-time data for the topic; the picker doesn’t affect them.
Rolling 7 days is a sliding live window for “current vibes”; switch to Weekly to compare specific weeks side-by-side.
live window
Topic

Contractor Cost Escalation

8 items · 8 aliases · peaked week of 26 Apr 2026 · first seen 29 Apr 2026

A Labour party release criticises the National Government for escalating contractor costs at Te Whatu Ora while cutting vital frontline staff and failing to publish health system plans, calling the approach hypocritical and damaging to public health.

Volume by source orientation Methodology →

Stacked weekly counts; colour by lean. “n/a” covers government and iwi-Māori sources where lean isn't applicable.

Alias drift

How this topic has been named, week by week. A new alias winning out is usually a framing shift.

Free account Watch this topic with a free account — get alerted when framing shifts, when an MP adopts new language, or when discourse and press diverge. Create a free account Log in

In the press Methodology →

How the news corpus has covered this same topic over the last 12 weeks. 4 articles from RNZ, Stuff, NZ Herald, ODT, 1News, Newsroom and The Spinoff. Click through to the press view for the full panel.

12-week press volume 4 articles
Free account Create a free account to see every headline on this topic — plus alerts when framing shifts or discourse and press diverge. Create a free account Log in

Sample framings

Up to 12 framings spread across orientations. Each framing is a short phrase the topic extractor generated to characterise the piece's stance — not a quote from the source. Click through to read the original.

exposes government hypocrisy and financial mismanagement

Release: Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons
28 Apr
Free account Create a free account to unlock the full set here — plus alerts when framing shifts or an MP adopts new language. Create a free account Log in

How the public reacted

Social-media signal on the same topic, drawn from the social lens. Engagement is likes + 2×shares + 3×replies, the same weighting used across the digest cards. View on /social →

Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction.