Abstract

There is a growing interest in the U.S. seafood and aquaculture market; however, studies utilizing online information to understand this market are limited. This study employs online media analytics to obtain insights into consumer perceptions and potential demand signals for shrimp and salmon in the U.S. Our results show that platform X is the preferred medium for shrimp and salmon discussions, with shrimp's physical quality and salmon's environmental impact being the two major perception drivers. Additionally, autoregressive modeling is conducted to explore the dynamics of net sentiments. Farmed shrimp and salmon consistently exhibit lower net sentiments compared to their wild counterparts, indicating that production methods (aquaculture-raised versus wild-harvested) significantly influence people's preferences. Both wild shrimp and salmon sentiments show a more positive trajectory compared to their farmed counterparts. Negative drops in wild shrimp sentiment are linked to boat incidents, while negative wild salmon sentiments are associated with climate change. Regional analysis demonstrates that public attitudes toward farmed shrimp in East South Central and Mountain regions are unstable, as are attitudes toward farmed salmon in the East North Central, Pacific, and West South Central regions. The fitted forecast model serves as a supplementary tool for industry stakeholders to quickly respond to negative sentiments, preparing for possible public perception changes and potentially enhancing demand. Regional statistics also assist the seafood industry in tailoring business strategies to address geographical differences.

There is a growing interest in the U.S. seafood and aquaculture market; however, studies utilizing online information to understand this market are limited. This study employs online media analytics to obtain insights into consumer perceptions and potential demand signals for shrimp and salmon in the U.S. Our results show that platform X is the preferred medium for shrimp and salmon discussions, with shrimp's physical quality and salmon's environmental impact being the two major perception drivers. Additionally, autoregressive modeling is conducted to explore the dynamics of net sentiments. Farmed shrimp and salmon consistently exhibit lower net sentiments compared to their wild counterparts, indicating that production methods (aquaculture-raised versus wild-harvested) significantly influence people's preferences. Both wild shrimp and salmon sentiments show a more positive trajectory compared to their farmed counterparts. Negative drops in wild shrimp sentiment are linked to boat incidents, while negative wild salmon sentiments are associated with climate change. Regional analysis demonstrates that public attitudes toward farmed shrimp in East South Central and Mountain regions are unstable, as are attitudes toward farmed salmon in the East North Central, Pacific, and West South Central regions. The fitted forecast model serves as a supplementary tool for industry stakeholders to quickly respond to negative sentiments, preparing for possible public perception changes and potentially enhancing demand. Regional statistics also assist the seafood industry in tailoring business strategies to address geographical differences.

Comments

This is the publisher PDF of Tao, Jingjing; Quagrainie, KK. (2025) "Online media sentiment analysis of shrimp and salmon in the United States." Aquaculture 595(2). Published CC-BY-NC-ND, the version of record and ADA Title II compliant version is available in HTML at DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2024.741672.

Keywords

Shrimp, Salmon, Sentiment analysis, Social acceptance

Date of this Version

1-30-2025

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