Media Coverage and COVID-19

The rapid onset of COVID-19 sparked a large divergence in relative performance for industries perceived as safest-from or most-exposed-to the impact of the virus. Media coverage during the onset of the crisis followed a similar divergence in tone as industries such as airlines, hotels, and restaurants suffered from largely negative reporting. As the crisis evolved and re-opening plans became clearer, media shifted its reporting in anticipation of a swift recovery. It would be tempting for reporters to lump industries together based on exposure to COVID (which we will do as a baseline analysis), but the reality is the recovery will shape up differently for each impacted industry. In this article we analyze how well media coverage has aligned with other data tracking the recovery in the industries and companies most impacted by the coronavirus.