Everyday Guyanese purchase the popular 'Kaieteur newspaper'. In many instances this would be the only newspaper citizens purchase.

What can be the reason for all this? For Guyanese to forsake the high journalistic quality found in the dailies of the Guyana Chronicle, Guyana Times and Stabroek news for the Kaieteur news?

Let's study the definition of a tabloid. 

-Now, a tabloid is a newspaper with stories (articles) which are often exaggerated, with its own language and style (sounds familiar?). Stories are regularly about crime, celebrities (we don't have many celebs. in Guyana), sex (slander of people), blood, murder, scandal and the lives of the rich and famous. This type of journalism is known as 'Yellow journalism'. This is where factual news is 'spinned' so much with fictional news/events to enlighten the reader. The style is used with colorful adjectives, exaggeration and maybe falsification of incidents. Adjectives and verbs are a big part of tabloid journalism. Now tabloids tend not to use the usual (or proper) adjectives (because they are boring?), they must be exaggerated to grab attention.

These are the traits which the KN is fuelled by. Yellow Journalism! As you flip through the pages of the KN most of the articles do not carry the writer's name and many Guyanese should have realized by now that this newspaper relies on solely gossip and it should not be taken seriously.

Many times the KN is the first to break the news on an event but they tell the people what they want to hear to sell more copies. Slander and more slander... major factor of 'Yellow Journalism'. The KN team do not do enough investigative journalism and take the easy route out and sensationalize stories and events of the day. 

One may ask: "What to do now?"

Well you can choose to read less of KN or don't believe their one sidedness. Freedom of the press and journalism can become dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.

Adolf Hitler used the press as a means to reach out the people and publish propaganda against the Government and promoted anti-semitism (hatred for the jews). Hitler realized the only way to win over the depressed German people was to promote slander which they easily bought. That was one of the main factors for Hitler's rise to evil.

A good newspaper should not practice yellow journalism and should be truthful and fair in their coverage of an event. Also articles and stories should not be personalized to attack someone in the public domain and instead of always promoting the negativities of society they should look at means to help combat these negativities.

Now you tell me, is the KN your sensational tabloid or truthful newspaper?