剑桥雅思考官写作范文：The media report crimes in details

　　Topic:Should the media report crimes in details?

    题目：媒体报道犯罪活动时是否应该报道细节。

    剑桥雅思考官写作范文：

　　Nowadays the media often cover news of crimes such as murder, rape andarmed robbery in great details. While such information may warn the public ofthe potential danger and help reduce crimes, providing too much informationabout crimes might lead to certain negative side effects. In my opinion, theinformation about crimes should be made accessible to the public but the mediashould refrain from reporting crimes in an irresponsible manner.

　　To begin with, there is no doubt that people should have the right toinformation about crimes committed in a community. If someone in theneighbourhood were murdered, the chance of other people being killed would alsoincrease. The people should be notified of the event as well as any actions theauthorities had taken immediately. Any attempts to block the news about thecrimes would violate people's right to know the truth. Yet, the necessity ofinforming the public does not mean full details have to be disclosed.

　　Admittedly, the best way to alert the public about a recent crime beingcommitted is through the reporting by the media. Most of us read newspaper andwatch TV news everyday. But there are a number of reasons why the media shouldonly report the crimes briefly and let any interested parties follow up with theevents by themselves. To begin with, the details of the crimes may causediscomfort and even panic among the members of the public. This is particularlytrue for the young children in the society. In addition, the time on TV and thespace on the newspaper are scarce resources that can be utilized in manydifferent ways. Therefore, the detailed reporting of the crimes would incur highopportunity costs as the public attention would have been directed to otherimportant issues such as education and environment. Finally, the fullinformation about crimes may be made available through the police or othergovernment agencies so that anyone interested in the events may consult therecords. Such arrangement would be less costly compared to reporting the detailsvia the media.

　　In conclusion, since crimes are relevant to each and every member of thesociety, the media should report the events as soon as possible to alert thepublic and to help prevent more crimes. Nevertheless, the reports of crimesshould be relatively brief in order to avoid public panic and to save theprecious TV time and newspaper space. Furthermore, anyone who wants to know moreabout certain events should be allowed to consult the government agencies forsuch