Topic: Should the media report crimes in details?

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

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

　　Admittedly, the best way to alert the public about a recent crime being committed is through the reporting by the media. Most of us read newspaper and watch TV news everyday. But there are a number of reasons why the media should only report the crimes briefly and let any interested parties follow up with the events by themselves. To begin with, the details of the crimes may cause discomfort and even panic among the members of the public. This is particularly true for the young children in the society. In addition, the time on TV and the space on the newspaper are scarce resources that can be utilized in many different ways. Therefore, the detailed reporting of the crimes would incur high opportunity costs as the public attention would have been directed to other important issues such as education and environment. Finally, the full information about crimes may be made available through the police or other government agencies so that anyone interested in the events may consult the records. Such arrangement would be less costly compared to reporting the details via the media.

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