Canadians Assess The Canadian Media And Its Coverage Of The Afghanistan Mission

Toronto, ON - A majority of Canadians (54%) believe that when they think of what they have seen, read or heard, overall in the Canadian media on Canada's role and mission in Afghanistan they think that the Canadian media are neither against nor in favour of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and are reporting the mission in a fair and balanced way that reflects what's really going on there according to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted for and released today by the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

This compares with one-third (33%) of Canadians who believe the Canadian media is against Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and as a result tilt their coverage in a negative way towards the mission and the governments position and 14% who believe the Canadian media is in favour of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and as a result tilt their coverage in a positive way towards the mission and the governments position.

But while 44% of Canadians say that they are just seeing more of the coverage about the combat element in Afghanistan, including the deaths of Canadian soldiers, and not as much about the humanitarian rebuilding efforts because that pretty much reflects what's actually happening over there, that there's more combat than rebuilding that's taking place at this time, a majority (56%) believe that they are seeing more coverage about the combat element in Afghanistan because the media are more interested in reporting on combat and deliberately ignoring the rebuilding efforts because they're not as exciting.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll fielded from November 3-6th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1613 adult Canadians was interviewed via an online survey. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 177 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

Majority of Canadians (54%) Believe Canadian Media Reporting of Afghanistan Mission is "Fair and Balanced"...But One Third (33%) Say Media Negatively Tilts Their Coverage Because They're Against the Mission While 14% Say Media Tilts Coverage Positive Because They're in Favour of The Mission...

A majority of Canadians (54%) believe that when they think of what they have seen, read or heard, overall in the Canadian media on Canada's role and mission in Afghanistan they think that the Canadian media are neither against nor in favour of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and are reporting the mission in a fair and balanced way that reflects what's really going on there

This compares with one-third (33%) of Canadians who believe the Canadian media is against Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and as a result tilt their coverage in a negative way towards the mission and the governments position, versus 14% who believe the Canadian media is in favour of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and as a result tilt their coverage in a positive way towards the mission and the governments position.

  • Younger Canadians age 18-34 are the most likely to think that the media negatively skews their coverage of Canada's mission in Afghanistan (37% vs. 32% among those age 35 and older).
  • Women are more likely than men to think the media has portrayed the Afghanistan mission in a fair and balanced way (58% vs. 49%).
  • Residents of Quebec (41%) are the most likely to think the media skews coverage in a negative way, followed distantly by those in Ontario (32%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (30%) and Atlantic Canada (29%).
  • Residents of Atlantic Canada (62%) and British Columbia (61%) are the most likely to feel the media coverage is unbiased and objective.

But 56% Of Canadians Say The Media Are More Interested in Reporting on Combat and Deliberately Ignore the Less Exciting Rebuilding Efforts...

A majority (56%) of Canadians believe that they are seeing more coverage about the combat element in Afghanistan because the media are more interested in reporting on combat and deliberately ignoring the rebuilding efforts because they're "not as exciting". This compares with 44% of Canadians who say that they are just seeing more of the coverage about the combat element in Afghanistan, including the deaths of Canadian soldiers, and not as much about the humanitarian rebuilding efforts because that "pretty much reflects what's actually happening over there--that there's more combat than rebuilding that's taking place at this time.

There are no demographic variations.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid
(416) 324-2002

For full tabular results, please visit our website at www.ipsos.ca. News Releases are available at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/

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