ABSTRACT
The spread of COVID-19 has proved deadly, and this is a challenging time for the union as well as state governments as they work to address this health emergency. In times of crisis, democratic governments may take a dangerous autocratic turn. Journalism has a great role to play in a democracy, as it has been ideally visualised as a platform for objective information and critical-rational discourse. The vilification of migrant labourers and a minority community whilst failing to critique the lack of measures to help these sections deal with the crisis is an important such indicator. The sudden announcement of the lockdown which gave people barely four hours of advance notice created a nationwide panic and the migrant labourers were the worst affected. Since most of the people are at home during the lockdown, it is natural to see a growth in media consumption.
