Canadian News Media Coverage of Government-Mandated Depopulation Policies During Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Outbreaks—A Sentiment Analysis

This study examines how Canadian news media portrayed government-mandated depopulation during Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks and identified patterns in reporting tone and language. English-language Canadian news and magazine articles published between December 2021 and September 2025 were retrieved from ProQuest. Sentiment analysis was conducted separately for article titles and full text using SentiStrength and sentimentr, with a study-specific neutral word list applied. Term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF–IDF) analysis was used to identify distinctive terms in titles and body text, while temporal sentiment patterns were examined in relation to major HPAI outbreak developments and Canadian case counts. A total of 217 articles were included. Overall article body sentiment was near neutral (mean = −0.02) but showed negative shifts during periods of heightened outbreak activity and high-profile events. Title-level sentiment scores were more frequently classified as negative (45.6%) than positive (11.5%). Distinctive terms in reporting included outbreak-related, legal, and institutional terminology. The results suggest that media portrayals of HPAI depopulation varied over time alongside major outbreak developments and policy-related events. Monitoring news reporting may provide insight into communication surrounding animal disease control policies during outbreaks and may help inform communication planning by policymakers, industry organizations, and extension professionals.