A company commissioned by the government has been monitoring social media comments about the Covid-19 response for almost two years, reporting back every four days. Those themes are then broken down further, with about 20 anonymised screenshots of people's comments used in every report to give specific examples. For almost every topic in every report, it found New Zealanders were making more negative social media comments than positive ones. The reports were provided to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), and released to RNZ with a statement from Covid-19 Response deputy chief executive Cheryl Barnes. Barnes said the reports were first commissioned in April 2020, via OMD, the media buying agency for the Covid-19 Response.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 30, 2022 17:34 UTC