PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY IN the office of the Prime Minister Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner has urged the media not to underestimate their power to mobilise the public for good or evil.

This plea came yesterday during a sensitisation and familiarisation workshop on issues of national development hosted by the United Nations Population Fund for media workers.

Speaking at United Nations House, Marine Gardens, she said this was especially necessary given the information age in which we are living.

She said media workers have considerable power and responsibility because of the technological revolution and the resulting ease in reaching huge audiences.

"In addition to facilitating the flow of information, media workers define reality and decide what is newsworthy," Sandiford-Garner said, adding that the media draws a line between what is relevant and what is not in order to make information more manageable for people.

"We are all agreed that one of the greatest strengths of the media is the ability to affect change," she said.

"Are the media in Barbados responsible for the cultural penetration that has robbed this nation of a generation of young people who have rejected traditional moral values in favour of those propogated through the antisocial lyrics of popular music?" Sandiford-Garner asked.

She also questioned why the media has remained relatively silent on the spread of the drug culture in the Caribbean as well as the reluctance of the developed world to help solve problems of the developing world.

She also called for greater attention to the plight of the poor and women and children who are usually more adversely affected.

Furthermore, she said that in a democracy the media can hold everyone accountable, including Government, and force them to explain the actions and decisions which affect the people they represent. (NB)