Blog post
February 1, 2021

Australia’s Great Vaccine Roll Out: Communicating through the COVID-19 Inoculation Initiative

Vaccination communication

We are fast approaching one of the largest health undertakings in 60 years, since the move to eradicate polio in the 1950’s. Australia’s vaccination initiative presents a mammoth challenge for everyone, particularly communicators. From government at all levels, to aged and health care services, to logistics providers as we distribute the vaccine; to the business community at large, such as corporates & NGOs. From the retail sector right through to education, travel and tourism, this impacts all of us as we work through the mass inoculation initiative of 2021.

With that in mind, planning and tracking, and measuring the execution of your communications strategy has never been more important. At Isentia, our Insights and Research team can support you with this important task, with a range of media intelligence and in-depth analysis solutions to help.

It’s also important to note that our research is not just for the PR & Media team, it’s used at all levels of an organisation across multiple role types, from HR teams, through to Strategy & Engagement teams. We just use the media (including social media), and/or the general public through our survey capabilities as a source of information. 

Here are some of the questions we can help answer and some ways we can support you around the COVID-19 vaccination roll out:

How do I track the effectiveness of our communication on vaccination?

Isentia Policy Insights is a great way to understand how your initiatives and approaches are being received. Isentia will help you to navigate through the communication stages of vaccination and policy/regulation around vaccine directives, tracking your effectiveness. Using a customised approach to meet your needs Isentia can draw upon contextual social media analysis, survey data and traditional media analysis. This can help you to understand what narratives are being put into the market, how people are reacting to them and how attitudes are shifting. Most importantly for policy analysis, Isentia always digs deeper than just assessing attitudes and narratives to assess risks and opportunities for your organisation and help you plan your communications strategy. For example, you could deep dive into the conversations around vaccine hesitancy and look at addressing trending topics around this.


I’m planning our communications strategy around the vaccine and would like to understand what’s worked in other countries who are already in the execution phase of their vaccination roll out.

Isentia’s International Media Insights will allow you to analyse media coverage from other countries around the world, to examine some of the emerging issues, message cut through, and considerations which could be applied to your strategy and remit. Isentia’s International Media Analysis is an ideal way to leverage the benefit of Australia’s position, where we can learn from other countries who have gone before us with the vaccine. Isentia can provide you with in depth research and evaluation of other countries vaccination communication programs. This combined with a pulse check of the current sentiment and issues around vaccination in the Australian media would be a powerful tool, for evidence and research-based planning.


Vaccination can be contentious, how can I stay across the broader narratives and look for risk and opportunities that are relevant to my communication?

Isentia’s Insights team can help you identify what narratives are being discussed in traditional media and how conversations are evolving on social media. Through contextual social media analysis we can see the effect of different communications on public response, and our audience sentiment analysis can look at how various people are thinking and feeling about the vaccine and how they respond to new information. Our award-winning Insights team has decades of communications experience at its disposal, and doesn’t just analyse data for you but can help to workshop the findings and discuss effective communication strategies in a volatile period.


How can I see the most influential voices on vaccination, is there anything I can learn from who leads the discussion?

Isentia can help you identify the highest impact influencers, what they are saying and where their messaging aligns with yours as well as where it diverges. Using our Media Impact Score we can provide a standardised methodology to assess the effectiveness of each influencer to provide you with a data-driven method to identify key targets. We can also categorise those targets so that you not only know who to contact, but about what. We are experts in isolating and identifying nuanced mischaracterisations that are being communicated to the market and help you more effectively work to counteract misinformation about your policy and activities but also about issues like vaccines in general.


I work in the aged care sector, I want to understand my position and overall reputation – I want to use the vaccination approach to rebuild some trust, particularly following the Aged Care Royal Commission

Reputation and Audience Sentiment Analysis at Isentia combines survey and social media research to assess what people are thinking and saying about a brand or an issue, and most importantly what’s driving those opinions. The aim of our research is not only to provide you with benchmarks and an overview of opinion, but to help drive strategic and tactical conversations within your organisation about your communications activities.


How do I stay across the issue broadly? I want to track what’s being said around vaccinations in Australia.

Isentia has a number of Daily Briefing options available, from daily weekdays, or 7 days a week coverage or a weekly subscription. This round up of key news, collated by an expert editor provides a snapshot of coverage relating to the vaccination, so you are fully informed. This serves as a tool for tactical response on a day to day basis, and helps you manage your response to a story that is constantly developing and changing rapidly. With the Daily COVID Vaccination Briefing, we make sure you haven’t missed any key stories, and will help you digest the key information as quickly as possible so that you are fully prepared for the day ahead.


I need to communicate with non-English audiences around the vaccination. How can I gain trust and confirm that my message is being heard?

At Isentia, we have a CALD media monitoring service which monitors non-English print publications along with online sources. We can also analyse the effectiveness of your communications through media analysis, and identify any misinformation and ensure your messages are getting traction.


To learn more or to speak to a consultant, get in touch today.

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A weekly tracker tracing the stories, figures and policies driving media and social coverage in the 2026 New Zealand General Election across Online News, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Forums. This edition covers conversations and coverage from 15th - 21st October, highlighting what’s shaping the election conversation.

1. Election Conversation

10,572
total mentions this week
2,842 media7,730 social

Media = news coverage. Social = all public posts across X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Threads - everyone posting, not just media outlets.

2. Media Issue of the Week

Opportunity Party Puts the Kingmaker Question at the Centre of the Campaign

Opportunity (TOP)271 media items · 325 social posts

The Opportunity Party, led by Qiulae Wong, was the most covered new story in the news this week. It polled 8% in the 1News Verian poll on 13 October and 5.4% in the Post/Freshwater poll on 19 October, just above the 5% needed to enter Parliament. With National and Labour close together, outlets described it as a possible kingmaker. Christopher Luxon ruled out working with the party at the Herald leaders' debate, then told West Coast voters he would work with "whoever I have to", and campaign chair Simeon Brown ruled it out again. David Seymour said ACT would consider a four-party arrangement that includes Opportunity. Later in the week the focus turned to the party itself, with former board members describing internal problems and Wong saying the party's rules need another look.

News outlets ran 271 items on the party or the kingmaker question in the headline or summary (9.5% of the 2,842 election items), and it was mentioned somewhere in 724 (25.5%). Coverage was highest on 15 October, after Luxon's West Coast comments, Brown's response and Seymour's remarks, and again on 20 and 21 October, with new poll results, the former board members' claims and Wong's comments on coalition deals.

It matters because it affects who can form a government. The Post projected that Opportunity's seven MPs could give either a Labour-led bloc a narrow 61-seat majority or a National-led bloc 66 seats, so every party has had to say whether it would work with Opportunity. On social media it was a smaller conversation, with 325 posts (4.2%), and those posts were less negative than average (44.4% negative against 53.0% overall). The story is about coalition options rather than a policy position, so it is not linked to a party issue below.

3. What's happening across media and social?

2,842 media items · 7,730 social items · share of each channel's own conversation, so the two bars are directly comparable

"Social" is all public posts across X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Threads - not just media organisations' own accounts.

MediaSocial
Issues
Cost of Living
Media
13.9%
Social
18%
Law & Order
Media
9.1%
Social
22.1%
Economy & Jobs
Media
16.5%
Social
12.5%
Health
Media
11.8%
Social
11.9%
Infrastructure & Transport
Media
10.1%
Social
4.1%
Parties
National
Media
25.8%
Social
21%
Labour
Media
23.5%
Social
17.8%
NZ First
Media
12.7%
Social
19.6%
Greens
Media
13.7%
Social
18.2%
ACT
Media
9.9%
Social
14.1%

Most frequent bylines and presenters: The most frequent bylines and presenters this week were Sean Plunket (The Platform), Ryan Bridge (Three), Henry Cooke (Waikato Times) and John MacDonald (Newstalk ZB).

Widest-reach accounts: The accounts with the widest reach among election posts were news outlets: the New Zealand Herald, 1News, Radio Tarana, RNZ and Stuff, along with the New Zealand Labour Party account. Party leaders' own accounts posted often but have smaller followings.

Law and order made up 22.1% of the issues discussed on social media but 9.1% in the news, about 2.4 times as much. Part of the gap is the continuing reaction to the Greens' and Te Pāti Māori's visit to a Mongrel Mob event, last week's Media Issue of the Week: 137 of the 791 law and order posts mention it. Across all social posts the visit came up in 291 (3.8%), 70.5% of them negative, and in 257 news items (9.0%).

The Opportunity Party shows the gap the other way round. It was in the headline or summary of 9.5% of news items but only 4.2% of social posts, about 2.3 times as much attention in the news. Among the parties, NZ First, the Greens and ACT had a bigger share of social mentions than news mentions (NZ First 19.6% against 12.7%, Greens 18.2% against 13.7%, ACT 14.1% against 9.9%), while National and Labour had a bigger share in the news (National 25.8% against 21.0%, Labour 23.5% against 17.8%).

4. Party Share of Conversation

1. National23.2%
2. Labour20.4%
3. NZ First16.5%
4. Greens16.2%
5. ACT12.2%
6. Te Pāti Māori6.5%
7. Opportunity (TOP)5%

Shown for seven parties, including Te Pāti Māori and the Opportunity Party (TOP), which is this week's Media Issue of the Week. Shares add up to 100% of the seven shown. Share of conversation measures attention, not polling, and is not a sign of electoral success.

5. Top candidates this week

1. Christopher Luxon1,614
2. Chris Hipkins1,611
3. Winston Peters1,133
4. David Seymour840
5. Chloe Swarbrick412

Christopher Luxon (1,614 mentions) and Chris Hipkins (1,611) were level at the top. Both were at the centre of the final leaders' debate on 20 October and the questions about working with Opportunity, and each party announced new policy during the week.

Winston Peters (1,133) was third and was mentioned far more on social media (726) than in the news (407). The most shared posts about him covered his comments on diversity, his message to David Seymour on strategic voting and his public meetings. David Seymour (840) drew attention for saying ACT could work with Opportunity.

Chloe Swarbrick (412) was in the news more than on social media (227 against 185), with coverage of the Greens' plan to reverse public service cuts and the Mongrel Mob visit. Mentions measure how much someone is being talked about, not how they are polling.

6. Election Issues

Top 4 themes this week

Cost of Living1,621
Economy & Jobs1,605
Law & Order1,430
Health1,252

What's driving conversation about each party?

Each party's top issues this week in social conversation, ranked by how much they were discussed

National
1Health
2Jobs
3Cost of living
Labour
1Health
2Education
3Cost of living
Greens
1Cost of living
2Law and order
3Training wage
ACT
1GP access
2Cost of living

Issues are ranked from social posts. Counts are not shown because the numbers for a single party and issue are small.

7. Issues to Watch

  • The coalition question around the Opportunity Party is likely to stay in the news until election day. Luxon has given two different answers on working with the party, and polls this month have put it between 4.8% and 8%, so a small shift in support could change which parties can form a government. The party's internal problems are also now in the spotlight.
  • Voter enrolment is becoming a political issue ahead of the 25 October deadline. New rules mean people cannot enrol at the polling booth, and 112 news items this week covered enrolment or the electoral roll, many focused on young and first-time voters. The number enrolled when the roll closes will show whether these concerns made a difference.
  • Social conversation leaned negative this week: 53.0% of posts with a clear tone were negative, 32.6% neutral and 14.4% positive. Cost of living is a top issue for four parties (National, Labour, Greens and ACT). Health is a top issue for two parties (National and Labour). Issues that matter to several parties are the ones most likely to keep shaping the campaign.


If you want to find out more about how Isentia can help you understand the NZ media landscape, please reach out to us here.

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Blog
NZ Election 2026: TOP as Kingmaker, Law & Order Surge on Social, and Minor Parties Gaining Ground

Analysis of the latest NZ Election 2026 media tracker: The Opportunity Party’s kingmaker potential, Law & Order social trends, and minor party momentum.

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A weekly tracker tracing the stories, figures and policies driving media and social coverage in the 2026 New Zealand General Election across Online News, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Forums. This edition covers conversations and coverage from 8th - 15th October, highlighting what’s shaping the election conversation.

1. Election Conversation

18,417
total mentions this week
4,479 media13,938 social

Media = news coverage. Social = all public posts across X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Forums - everyone posting, not just media outlets.

2. Media Issue of the Week

Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs Draw Criticism Over Meeting With Mongrel Mob Members

Greens / Te Pāti Māori112 media items · 116 social posts

Candidates and sitting MPs from the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori attended a meeting with Mongrel Mob members at a gang address. When photographs from the meeting were shared on social media, the response from commentators and rival parties was swift and largely critical.

This was not the week's highest-volume story, accounting for only 112 of 4,479 media items (2.5%, after filtering out unrelated international content) and 116 of 13,938 unique social posts (0.8%, after collapsing retweet/repost duplicates down to one count per message), well below the volume generated by ongoing leaders' debate coverage, which totalled 1,125 media items. Two independent methods nonetheless support treating it as a genuine, separable story: an exact keyword count aligns closely with an unsupervised clustering analysis of the entire media population, which identified it as a distinct 47-item cluster - smaller than general campaign coverage and several specific policy announcements, but clearly distinguishable from them. What sets the story apart is the intensity of the reaction rather than its scale: 72% of social commentary on the topic was negative, the most one-sided sentiment recorded for any subject this week, and the average post attracted roughly 5.7 times the typical level of engagement. Taken together, these figures point to a genuine public reaction concentrated on social platforms, and the episode provides National and ACT with a law-and-order narrative that may continue into coming weeks. It has not been linked to a tracked party policy below, as it reflects a matter of conduct rather than a policy position.

3. What's happening across media and social?

4,479 media items · 13,938 social items · share of each channel's own conversation, so the two bars are directly comparable

"Social" is all public posts across X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Forums - not just media organisations' own accounts.

MediaSocial
Issues
Cost of Living
Media
15.8%
Social
22.7%
Economy & Jobs
Media
19.4%
Social
17.5%
Health
Media
11.7%
Social
9.9%
Infrastructure & Transport
Media
11.4%
Social
5.2%
Law & Order
Media
5.3%
Social
10.6%
Parties
National
Media
30.9%
Social
27.5%
Labour
Media
25.3%
Social
21.6%
NZ First
Media
14.7%
Social
21.5%
Greens
Media
14.1%
Social
20.4%
ACT
Media
6.8%
Social
6.4%

The most active commentary this week came from Sean Plunket, the Chris Chang and Tova O'Brien pairing, and John MacDonald.

By follower reach, the most prominent social accounts posting about the election this week were major outlets' own accounts - the New Zealand Herald, 1News, RNZ, Stuff and Radio Tarana - alongside the official Labour Party account. Individual leaders' personal accounts posted actively but with smaller followings than these outlet and party accounts.

The Greens continue to receive disproportionately greater attention on social media relative to traditional news coverage, accounting for 20.4% of social party conversation compared with 14.1% in media coverage - roughly 1.4 times the media share.

Law and order shows a similarly pronounced gap between channels this week, accounting for 10.6% of social conversation compared with 5.3% in the news. This is consistent with the public reaction to the Mongrel Mob meeting, which appears to have generated considerably sharper engagement on social platforms than mainstream coverage volume alone would suggest.

4. Party Share of Conversation

1. National33.1%
2. Labour26.6%
3. NZ First20.6%
4. Greens19.7%

Shown for the four largest parliamentary parties (National, Labour, Greens, NZ First); ACT, Te Pāti Māori and TOP are tracked elsewhere in this report but not included in this chart, so these shares sum to 100% of the four shown, not of all tracked parties. Share of conversation measures attention and mentions only - it is not polling and should not be read as an indication of electoral success.

5. Top candidates this week

1. Winston Peters1,931
2. Christopher Luxon1,631
3. Chris Hipkins1,466
4. David Seymour916
5. Chloe Swarbrick561

Winston Peters leads the rankings this week, a shift driven primarily by a widely circulated moment in the minor-party leaders' debate in which he described diversity as "a weakness rather than a strength" while delivering a pointed critique of the left-leaning bloc. Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins follow closely behind as the campaign moves into its final weeks, while David Seymour and Chloe Swarbrick complete the top five, each drawing attention largely through their parties' own policy announcements this week.

6. Election Issues

Top 4 themes this week

Economy & Jobs3,014
Cost of Living2,901
Health1,789
Infrastructure & Transport1,508

What's driving conversation about each party?

Each major party's top-ranked issues this week, by real topic volume in their social conversation (after excluding other parties' names, individual people, and procedural or horse-race chatter), with how that conversation leaned

NegativeNeutralPositive
National
Cost of living · 86 items
Neg 46.5%Neu 31.4%Pos 22.1%
Tax reform · 34 items
Neg 44.1%Neu 52.9%Pos 2.9%
Fiscal plan · 42 items
Neg 38.1%Neu 57.1%Pos 4.8%
Labour
Cost of living · 88 items
Neg 30.7%Neu 36.4%Pos 33%
Fiscal plan · 47 items
Neg 55.3%Neu 34%Pos 10.6%
Economy · 70 items
Neg 34.3%Neu 48.6%Pos 17.1%
Greens
Wealth tax · 41 items
Neg 53.7%Neu 34.1%Pos 12.2%
Cost of living · 43 items
Neg 27.9%Neu 41.9%Pos 30.2%
Jobs · 112 items
Neg 34.8%Neu 33.9%Pos 31.2%
ACT
Fiscal plan · 24 items
Neg 50%Neu 37.5%Pos 12.5%

Volume and sentiment above are based on social media data only.

7. Issues to Watch

  • The meeting between Green and Te Pāti Māori representatives and Mongrel Mob members represents a reputational risk for both parties heading into the final weeks of the campaign. Whether National and ACT are able to sustain this as a law-and-order narrative through to the 7 November election is worth monitoring closely.
  • Labour's fiscal plan issue recorded the most negative social sentiment of any tracked policy this week, at 55.3% negative, followed by Greens' wealth tax at 53.7% and ACT's fiscal plan at 50.0%. All three touch on tax, spending or fiscal policy specifically, suggesting the fiscal debate is where social sentiment is running most negative across the board this week, rather than any one party facing an isolated problem.
  • Social media discussion of the Greens continues to centre on polling performance and tactical voting considerations rather than policy substance. Coalition and tactical-voting framing accounts for 12.7% of their social conversation this week, compared with just 2.2% focused specifically on their wealth tax proposal - a pattern that has now held for three consecutive weeks. Whether that balance shifts as the campaign enters its final stretch would be worth tracking.

If you want to find out more about how Isentia can help you understand the NZ media landscape, please reach out to us here.

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Blog
NZ Election 2026: Mongrel Mob Controversy, Fiscal Policy and Greens on social media

Explore New Zealand’s 2026 election conversation, from the Mongrel Mob meeting controversy and law and order to reactions to Labour’s capital gains tax.

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A weekly tracker tracing the stories, figures and policies driving media and social coverage in the 2026 New Zealand General Election across Online News, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Forums. This edition covers conversations and coverage from 1st – 8th October, highlighting what’s shaping the election conversation.

1. Election Conversation

21,637
total mentions this week
4,360 media17,277 social

2. Media Issue of the Week

National Proposes Drug Testing and Benefit Cuts for Jobseekers

National29 media items

National announced a five-point welfare policy: random drug testing for JobSeeker recipients (with sanctions for repeat failures), reduced payments for long-term beneficiaries, and a doubled stand-down period for repeatedly leaving jobs without good reason. Labour and the Greens called it "punching down" and "cruel"; ACT proposed going even further; Luxon defended it as "fairness" for taxpayers.

The single largest media cluster this week (183 of 600 sampled items) was generic "campaigning intensifies as election day nears" coverage. This welfare policy, while smaller by volume (29 items), is a genuine flashpoint: a specific, controversial announcement that sharply divided every major party and will likely keep generating reaction into next week.

3. What's happening across media and social?

4,360 media items · 17,277 social items · share of each channel's own conversation, so the two bars are directly comparable

MediaSocial
Issues
Cost of Living
Media
15.8%
Social
24.5%
Economy & Jobs
Media
19.4%
Social
13.4%
Housing
Media
10.5%
Social
7.7%
Health
Media
8.5%
Social
9.3%
Infrastructure & Transport
Media
9.8%
Social
7.1%
Education
Media
8.2%
Social
8%
Parties
National
Media
25.5%
Social
31.3%
Labour
Media
18.9%
Social
25.9%
NZ First
Media
18.3%
Social
17.2%
Greens
Media
10.3%
Social
20.8%
ACT
Media
11%
Social
3.9%

The Greens get more than twice the relative attention on social media as in the news. On social, the Greens are 20.8% of party conversation; in the news, they're 10.3%.

Health is a top-four issue on social but not in the news this week - Infrastructure takes its place in media's top four instead. Social conversation is tilting toward the health system while media coverage stays on economy, cost of living and infrastructure announcements.

4. Party Share of Conversation

1. National33.7%
2. Labour26.7%
3. NZ First20.7%
4. Greens18.9%

Share of conversation measures attention and mentions only - it is not polling and should not be read as an indication of electoral success.

5. Top candidates this week

1. Christopher Luxon2,301
2. Chris Hipkins2,058
3. Winston Peters1,446
4. David Seymour757
5. Chloe Swarbrick609

Luxon and Hipkins remain close at the top as the campaign enters its final stretch. Peters follows, still driven by coalition speculation. Seymour moves up to fourth on the back of ACT's economic-reform push (including floating a higher superannuation age), overtaking Swarbrick, whose fifth-place mentions continue to track the Greens' polling strength.

6. Election Issues

Top 4 themes this week

Cost of Living3,584
Economy & Jobs3,359
Housing1,846
Infrastructure & Transport1,709

How are policies landing for each party?

Each major party's most prominent specific policy, and how social conversation reacted to it

NegativeNeutralPositive
National
Infrastructure investment · 53 items
Neg 42.3%Neu 36.5%Pos 21.2%
Labour
Capital gains tax (incl. farms) · 70 items
Neg 85.5%Neu 14.5%Pos 0%
Greens
Wealth tax · 67 items
Neg 17.9%Neu 65.7%Pos 16.4%
ACT
KiwiSaver tax removal · 23 items
Neg 4.3%Neu 4.3%Pos 91.3%

Volume and sentiment above are based on social media data only.

7. Issues to Watch

  • National's welfare drug-testing policy is a fresh, sharply divisive flashpoint - the "punching down" framing from Labour and the Greens, and ACT signalling it wants to go further still, both point to more reaction next week.
  • Labour's capital gains tax remains the week's clearest negative outlier (85.5% negative on social). National's own infrastructure pledge is also net-negative this week (42.3% vs 21.2% positive), despite infrastructure announcements usually landing on safer ground than tax policy. ACT's KiwiSaver policy, by contrast, remains clearly positive (91.3%).
  • On social, discussion of the Greens is mostly about polling results and tactical voting rather than their own policy: 14% of their social conversation is coalition/tactical-voting framing (which bloc to "party vote" for), versus just 2% specifically about their wealth tax policy - their polling surge is driving attention more than their platform is.

If you want to find out more about how Isentia can help you understand the NZ media landscape, please reach out to us here.

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NZ Election 2026: Welfare, Greens and the policies driving conversation

What’s shaping New Zealand’s 2026 election conversation? Explore the key policies, parties and issues driving media and social discussion this week.

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