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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.
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Week of 17 Aug 2026
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Topic · social

Political Realignment

107 posts · 25,127 engagement · first seen 14 May 2020 · last seen 25 Aug 2026

The shifting of voter allegiances and politician affiliations between parties — evident in New Zealand through high-profile defections to NZ First from National, Labour, and Te Pāti Māori, and polling suggesting widespread voter openness to switching parties ahead of the 2026 election.

Stance breakdown

How the per-edge framings classify across 86 classified edges. Each framing is labelled by a small AI stance classifier; see the methodology page for details.

12%
41%
45%
Supportive 10 Critical 35 Dismissive 1 Neutral / explainer 39 Mocking 1

Sentiment breakdown

Whole-post emotional valence across 86 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.

24%
29%
47%
Positive 21 Neutral 25 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
    9 posts · 18,323 engagement
    18,323
  • reddit
    9 posts · 3,802 engagement
    3,802
  • youtube
    64 posts · 599 engagement
    599
  • twitter
    4 posts · 400 engagement
    400

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.