The impact of media coverage and demographics on the demand for Norwegian salmon

Although consumption is increasing, aquaculture is controversial in many countries because of the potential environmental impact, leading to substantial media coverage. In this article, we investigate the impact on demand for salmon in Norway with a single equation specification as well as a demand system. As Norway is a large salmon producer, the media coverage is highly varied. Our media coverage data can be broken down into 10 different categories, which vary from positive coverage such as cooking recipes to negative coverage of production problems such as disease. Our results indicate that in aggregate, the media coverage has little impact on demand for salmon. There are some indications that the positive coverage increases demand. There are also spillover effects relatively to other goods (cod, poultry and red meat).