How media coverage affected egg price perceptions
Purdue researchers look at changes in public discourse and sentiment resulting from a surge in media coverage.
By Valerie Kilders and Nicole Widmar
When egg prices spiked in 2022 and 2023, so did public chatter. However, new research from Purdue University suggests that a surge in media coverage may have amplified public discourse, creating a feedback loop of attention around egg prices.
Using a technique called social media listening, the research team, consisting of Dr. Valerie Kilders, Dr. Nicole Olynk Widmar, and agricultural economics master student Sachina Kagaya, analyzed millions of online posts about eggs, covering sources like X (Twitter), blogs, and news outlets. Their goal was to understand how public sentiment and attention shifted during the dramatic rise in egg prices.
Their study, “The price of attention: An analysis of the intersection of media coverage and public sentiments about eggs and egg prices,” published in Volume 104 of Poultry Science in January 2025, reveals that online discussions about egg prices rose sharply as prices did, and sentiment took a noticeable downturn. However, the researchers found that it was not just price increases driving attention: Media coverage acted as a multiplier, intensifying online discourse once it ramped up in late 2022.
Egg prices had already been climbing for nearly a year when they peaked at $4.83 for a dozen large Grade A eggs in January 2023, up from $1.93 a year earlier. This surge stemmed primarily from an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu. By October 2023, the disease had affected more than 59 million birds, which is equivalent to about 15% of the U.S. laying flock. Inflation, rising feed and fuel costs, and post-COVID supply chain disruptions further compounded the impact.
The Purdue team found that while rising prices were linked to more mentions and more negative sentiment, the biggest spikes in public attention occurred after media coverage exploded. Once news coverage about egg shortages and soaring prices increased, online chatter surged. Indeed, their results suggest that egg prices were less associated with mentions and net sentiment in online and social media when they included the influence of online news coverage, suggesting that people's public outrage might have been fueled by temporary media attention rather than the gradual price increases.
So, what do the authors’ results mean for the current price spike observed for eggs? Is history repeating itself? Egg prices are once again soaring amid a renewed wave of bird flu outbreaks. In March 2025, the average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs hit $6.23 in U.S. cities, which is more than double the $2.99 average from just a year prior.
When asked about how the current situation compares to what they found in their study of the 2022/2023 surge, the researchers conducted a cursory examination of Google Trends data – a tool that shows the relative frequency of how often a term or topic is searched by people on the Google search engine.
Mirroring the results of their study, the researchers found that searches for “egg prices” did not increase gradually alongside the price climb itself but, rather, peaked with the increase of news coverage in the first three months of 2025.
In practice, the researchers’ results imply that retailers and policymakers need to pay attention not only to the pricing but also to the amount and timing of news reporting on recent events to better understand consumer responses to shifts in prices. In an era of fast-moving information and sensitive supply chains, paying attention to media timing could offer valuable insight into how consumers react to rising food costs for those managing supply chains or crafting public messaging.
Reference
Kagaya, S., Widmar, N.O., and Kilders, V. (2025). The price of attention: An analysis of the intersection of media coverage and public sentiments about eggs and egg prices. Poultry Science, 104(1), 104482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2024.104482.
Valerie Kilders is assistant professor and Nicole Widmar is agricultural economics professor and department head, both in the Purdue University Department of Agricultural Economics.
