Brassette Henry

USI: 1027460
Course: DPC 1105
Lecturer: Carinya Sharples
Date: October 3, 2018.

Comparison and Contrast Essay

A balanced view is essential in any democratic society in order to avoid any prejudiced opinions in
the public. In the society in which we live in today, we are exposed to multiple media outlets. So, it
should go without saying that news sources must present a holistic and unbiased view whenever
reporting a story. To demonstrate this point, I chose to use a story that was published in both
Kaieteur News and the Guyana’s Chronicle newspapers on October 2, 2018.

The article is titled “No records of millions from Georgetown Restoration Programme” in Chronicle’s
issue and the same story is presented in Kaieteur News under the heading “Town Clerk fails to
respond to audit queries on $500M spending for cleanup project”. The story is related to alleged
misappropriations by senior officials and administrative officers of the Georgetown Mayor and City
Council, (M&CC). These officials are being accused of not being able to provide documents to
account for over $70M from the $500M that they received for the Georgetown Restoration
Programme.

In the Kaieteur News, the story is centered upon the Town Clerk, Royston King. They have
personalized the issue and identified Mr. King as the key problem as is indicated by the reporter,
who was not named, wrote “as such, administrative officers of the Georgetown Mayor and City
Council, (M&CC), more specifically the Town Clerk, Royston King, is being accused of failing to
provide information as it relates to spending under the $500M city wide clean up exercise.” This
article appears biased, almost as if they have an agenda against Royston King, so the tone used here
is a negative one.

In the coverage of the same issue in Chronicle’s newspaper, the author, who also was not named,
explained the facts surrounding the incident; including all the events and their sequences that lead
up to the story being published rather than just focusing mainly on the Town Clerk and only
mentioned him at the end of the article when it was stated “The CoI heard that it is the Town Clerk
that submits the financial statements to the AO after being prepared by the treasurer. The current
Town Clerk is Royston King”.

The article printed in Chronicle, stated the main point of the story in bold before proceeding to tell
the details of the story. The writer then went on further explaining prior events that occurred and
led to the current situation. Finally, at the end of the article, in bold similar to the introduction, the
writer informs readers of the present situation. In Kaieteur News on the other hand, the article
published is less organized. It starts off similarly to Chronicle identifying the main point of the story,
but, the remainder of the story summarizes what is currently happening and not what have led to
the present situation. Both articles are presented in past tense.

It should be noted that, even though both writers had their own way of reporting their stories, both
stories corroborate each other and no aspect of either seemed untrue. This allowed the reader to
understand the situation properly and the context on what is happening as well as where, when and
how. A reasonable and rational person reading these articles should encounter no problems
comprehending the main points. (Brassette Henry)
 Article from Chronicle

Article from Kaieteur News