Business news channels like Bloomberg News were among the very first television news outlets in the United States to sound the alarm about what would go on to become the Covid-19 global pandemic, honing in on the early stages of the outbreak. For example, the clips below from Jan. 5th and 8th, 2020 showcase some of this earliest coverage as mainstream channels like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News didn't even have the pandemic-to-be on their radars.
As we look to understand how this early Covid-19 narrative on business channels evolved parallel to that of mainstream channels, a critical limiting factor has been our inability to distinguish medical news coverage from medical advertisements. We are excited to announce the addition of Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business to the Television News Advertising Inventory Files dataset!