OpenBrief
⌘K
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.
Weekly Rolling 7 days
live window
Topic

Raccoon Army Conspiracy

2 items · 2 aliases · peaked week of 10 May 2026 · first seen 12 May 2026

This piece investigates how trolling and joking responses in surveys distort the perceived prevalence of conspiracy beliefs in New Zealand, using a satirical raccoon army theory as a case study, while noting that a significant minority still genuinely hold such beliefs.

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. 1 article 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 1 article
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.

conversation-nz Centre-left

a satirical belief about Canadian military experiments

Conspiracy theories: do 300,000 Kiwis really believe Canada is building an army of mutant super-raccoons?
11 May
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

Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction.