The price of attention: An analysis of the intersection of media coverage and public sentiments about eggs and egg prices

Retail prices for eggs surged during the period from early 2022 to mid-2023 in the U.S. We investigate the impact of egg price fluctuations on online and social media discourse, analyzing the relationship between egg prices and public sentiment. Utilizing online and social media listening data from September 2019 to August 2023, we explore how the total number of statements (i.e., mentions) and sentiment respond to changes in egg prices in the U.S. We find a significant association between increases in egg prices and both the volume of mentions and the sentiment of online discussions. Notably, mentions increased and sentiment became more negative as egg prices rose, highlighting a clear public response to price changes. However, the relationship between egg prices and online and social media attention is complex, which becomes apparent when studying the timing of increased concern with the timing of online news media coverage. Importantly, using regression discontinuity in time, we show that online and social media conversations about eggs and egg prices tend to increase after the rapid rise in online news coverage. Similarly, online and social media conversations about eggs and egg prices tend to decrease after the rapid rise in online news coverage.