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 · social

Austerity Politics

51 posts · 12,374 engagement · first seen 19 Dec 2024 · last seen 22 Jul 2026

Debate over the New Zealand government's use of fiscal restraint — including spending cuts, reduced public services, and constrained budgets — as a tool for managing public finances, and whether such measures unfairly burden lower-income groups and public sector workers.

Stance breakdown

How the per-edge framings classify across 48 classified edges. Each framing is labelled by a small AI stance classifier; see the methodology page for details.

96%
Supportive 1 Critical 46 Mocking 1

Sentiment breakdown

Whole-post emotional valence across 48 classified posts that reference this topic. Distinct from stance: a post can be supportive of the topic and still negative in tone (an angry supporter) — the two together capture the texture short-form posts compress into very few words.

10%
83%
Positive 3 Neutral 5 Negative 40

Platform mix

Where the conversation is happening. Engagement is volume-weighted (likes + 2×shares + 3×replies); a small number of high-impact posts can outrank a high-volume but low-engagement platform.

  • facebook
    3 posts · 3,819 engagement
    3,819
  • reddit
    10 posts · 1,012 engagement
    1,012
  • twitter
    2 posts · 563 engagement
    563
  • youtube
    33 posts · 115 engagement
    115

Top posts by engagement

The most-engaged posts referencing this topic. Engagement is likes + 2×shares + 3×replies; the order matches the digest ranking on /social.