  During the COVID-19 pandemic, the news media coverage encompassed a wide
range of topics that includes viral transmission, allocation of medical
resources, and government response measures. There have been studies on
sentiment analysis of social media platforms during COVID-19 to understand the
public response given the rise of cases and government strategies implemented
to control the spread of the virus. Sentiment analysis can provide a better
understanding of changes in societal opinions and emotional trends during the
pandemic. Apart from social media, newspapers have played a vital role in the
dissemination of information, including information from the government,
experts, and also the public about various topics. A study of sentiment
analysis of newspaper sources during COVID-19 for selected countries can give
an overview of how the media covered the pandemic. In this study, we select The
Guardian newspaper and provide a sentiment analysis during various stages of
COVID-19 that includes initial transmission, lockdowns and vaccination. We
employ novel large language models (LLMs) and refine them with expert-labelled
sentiment analysis data. We also provide an analysis of sentiments experienced
pre-pandemic for comparison. The results indicate that during the early
pandemic stages, public sentiment prioritised urgent crisis response, later
shifting focus to addressing the impact on health and the economy. In
comparison with related studies about social media sentiment analyses, we found
a discrepancy between The Guardian with dominance of negative sentiments (sad,
annoyed, anxious and denial), suggesting that social media offers a more
diversified emotional reflection. We found a grim narrative in The Guardian
with overall dominance of negative sentiments, pre and during COVID-19 across
news sections including Australia, UK, World News, and Opinion
