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Abstract

In August 2021, nearly 200 million people globally were believed to have had Covid-19 since the first case was reported in China in late 2019. The reported global death toll topped 4.26 million even as the World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed grave concern over the coronavirus, its mutations and the ever growing list of symptoms. The Covid-19 pandemic has rightly been regarded as the worst disaster befalling the global social and economic landscape in the last almost 100 years. Whilst previous natural or manmade disasters viz. earthquakes, floods, epidemics and World War I/II were largely confined to a continent or two, the magnitude of coronavirus contagion is still unfolding for mankind. The pandemic, which quickly spread far and wide due to an interconnected world, faster travel modes and voluminous international trade, has impacted every facet of life and society, business being no exception. During these troubled times, the conventional mass media of newspapers, periodicals and news channels were at the forefront of informing the public about the outbreak and the aftermath of the pandemic, which is believed to have originated from a discreet lab in Wuhan, China. The media has been tirelessly disseminating news about Covid-19, lockdown, restrictions on trade and movement, the development of vaccines, probe into its genesis, collaboration between nations, vaccination process et al. The media has dextrously been highlighting the radical shift in the pre-Covid norms of society as also business, trade and industry. The crystallisation of new normal taking shape in these domains has lucidly been narrated and presented by the mass media for the general public.Ironically, while the media resiliently dispensed a yeoman’s service to the community by informing and educating on the crisis, it also underwent an irreversible metamorphosis itself! Beyond the noble purpose of serving as a vital pillar of democracy, a news organisation is intrinsically a business or a non-profit entity, as the case may be according to its constitution, for sustenance and growth. It also follows the standard principles that power the biggest of the global corporations to the more modest trading or industrial units locally. With the entire value and supply chains of the industrial and commercial world getting disrupted, thus bringing about a sudden shift in the conventional processes and the work hierarchies, the media could no longer afford the luxury of a status quo.

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