> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Adverse media guide > How to read the adverse media research on a vendor: the five dimensions, what material means, and why a dimension nobody searched is never clear. For AI agents: a documentation index is available at [https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt](https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt). This page is also available in markdown by appending .md to the URL. > [!NOTE] > > This guide is part of the [User Guides](https://docs.coverbase.com/user-guides/overview.md) collection. For the people behind the vendor and what is on record about them, see [People intelligence](https://docs.coverbase.com/user-guides/people-intelligence.md). People intelligence screens the people who run a vendor. This page screens the company itself: what the press, the courts, regulators and sanctions lists say about it over the last five years, plus any older matter still open. It runs on its own once a vendor has a website on file, and it runs again as part of any Zero Touch assessment that includes **Adverse media** in its scope. ## Finding it Open a vendor, go to **Vendor Intelligence**, and pick the **Adverse Media** tab. The Vendor Intelligence overview also carries an **Adverse Media** card with the standing and a link to the full page. ## How the research searches Each run searches the vendor's name on every angle of the five dimensions in the news index. Litigation and regulatory are searched again on the open web, where court opinions and a regulator's own releases live. The registered name and the aliases on the identity line are searched too, on the litigation, regulatory and sanctions angles, when they are a different name rather than a different spelling: a holding company or a former trading name, not the same name with a legal suffix. The count under the findings says how many searches the run made. ## The five dimensions Every finding is filed under one of five dimensions, and each dimension carries its own standing. | Dimension | What it covers | | - | - | | Media and customer sentiment | Breach coverage, controversy, safety incidents, customer sentiment | | Litigation exposure | Suits naming the company or a unit it owns | | Regulatory and enforcement | Enforcement actions, regulator decisions, insolvency, debarment | | Executive conduct and stability | A matter attaching to a named leader, or leadership churn | | Sanctions and association | Sanctions, financial crime, bribery, corruption | A dimension reads **Adverse findings** when it holds a material finding, **Watch** when it holds adverse findings none of which is material, **Clear** when it was searched and nothing adverse was found, and **Not screened** when no search covered it. > [!WARNING] > > Not screened and Clear look alike on a page and mean opposite things. A dimension whose searches did not answer is never shown as clear, and the page's standing cannot be read as a clean record while any dimension is not screened. ## Reading a finding Each finding row carries the matter's severity, whether it is material, its dimension, where it got to, and whether the vendor disputes it. Open the row for the detail points the research found, the outcome in words, who the matter attaches to, and every page cited. A finding is **material** when it is High or Medium severity and neither resolved nor dismissed. A matter the vendor won, settled, or remediated with a sign-off is shown for the record and marked **Resolved**; it does not count against the vendor. **Disputed** means the vendor publicly contests the report. A disputed matter stays material until a court or regulator closes it. **Favorable coverage** such as an award or a safety grade is listed in its own section. It is context for the reader and never offsets an adverse finding. ## Checking it is the right company Under the standing, the page says which company the research looked for: the name, the website, the registered name and jurisdiction when a register record is bound, and the headquarters. Every finding is only as good as this line. If it names the wrong company, choose **Not the right company?** beside it. The correction form opens with **This is a different company** already ticked. Give the right website or registered name if you know it, and say in the note how to tell the two companies apart. The research runs again for the company you named, and your note is kept so later runs read it too. ## Setting a finding aside A finding can be about a namesake, or be wrong or out of date, without the whole page being about the wrong company. Open the finding and choose **Set aside...**, then say why: * **It is about a different company.** Name the other company if you can. The research is told the two are not the same, so the next run does not confuse them again. * **It is wrong or no longer current.** Add a note if there is something the research should know. The finding leaves the standing straight away, the dimension it sat in is recalculated, and the Zero Touch reputation roll-up follows. It moves to **Set aside by reviewers** at the foot of the page, where anyone can see what was set aside and why. A re-run that finds the same matter again, even through a different article, keeps it set aside. **Restore** on a set-aside finding reverses the decision: it counts again from that moment, and the next run may report it again. ### Several at once, with AI When more than one finding does not belong, choose **Clean up with AI** in the Findings header or from the actions menu (**...**). Write what is wrong in a sentence or two, for example "anything about pet food or Texas is Northwind Traders, a different company". The AI reads every finding against your note and proposes the ones to set aside, each with its reason. Untick anything that should stay, then confirm. Nothing changes until you do. Your note is kept with the vendor as the standing correction for this page, so the next research run reads the same sentence. ## Adding something the research missed If you know about a matter the page does not show, choose **Look for something...** in the Findings header or from the actions menu. Describe the matter, and if you know where it is, give a site, a page address, or a few keywords. The research searches for it now and shows what it found; tick what to add. Added findings count like any other, carry an **Added by reviewer** label, and are kept across refreshes. With **Keep looking for this on every refresh** ticked, the hint becomes a standing direction every later run searches too. **Remove** on an added finding drops it. All of these actions need permission to update the vendor, and all apply to every workspace that tracks the same company. ## In a Zero Touch assessment Tick **Adverse media** on the Scope step to research it as part of the run. The report carries an **Adverse Media** subsection under Company with the standing and the way into the full page, and the Reputation roll-up reads these findings beside the people dossier and watchlist matches. ## Troubleshooting | Symptom | Fix | | - | - | | No adverse media research yet | Use **Start research** on the page, or include Adverse media in a Zero Touch run. | | Screening did not run | The search sources did not answer. Refresh to try again, and do not record a clean result in the meantime. | | One finding is about another company | Open the finding and choose **Set aside...**, then **It is about a different company**. Name the other company so the research does not confuse them again. | | Every finding is about another company | Choose **Not the right company?** under the standing and give the right website or registered name; the page is researched again straight away. | | A set-aside finding should count after all | Find it under **Set aside by reviewers** and choose **Restore**. | | Several findings are about another company | Choose **Clean up with AI**, describe what does not belong, and confirm the proposals. | | A matter I know about is missing | Choose **Look for something...**, describe it and where to look, and add what the search finds. | ## Related * [People intelligence](https://docs.coverbase.com/user-guides/people-intelligence.md) * [Sanctions screening](https://docs.coverbase.com/user-guides/sanctions-screening.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.