Media Continues to Miss the Mark in Coverage of Faith and Religion, say Regular Attenders of Religious Services
Three quarters (74%) of all Canadians believe media sources can encourage religious tolerance. Those who regularly attend religious services are even more optimistic: 78% of weekly attenders and 81% of monthly attenders feel the media can encourage religious tolerance.
Among those Canadians (75%) who identify with a religious group, 55% report they look to the religious media for information on their own specific religious group. Four in ten (40%) look to the religious media for information on other religious groups, while 45% look to the secular or non-religious media.
Six in ten Canadians (61%) say religion is an important part of their day-to-day life and 21% report attending religious services once a week or more.
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between April 30th and May 3rd, 2003 for the Centre for Faith and the Media. The Centre for Faith and the Media was established in 2002 as a non-profit, independent organization to help media and the general public understand attitudes and practices in faith and spirituality. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 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 regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data. A previous study on this topic was conducted in May 1998 by Ipsos-Reid, with a sample of 1516 Canadians.
Two thirds (63%) of Canadians who attend religious services weekly say "the media does a poor job of covering faith and religion and that this area does not get the kind of coverage it should". Among those who attend religious services once a month, 51% feel the media does a poor job, as do 31% of occasional attenders and 27% of those who never attend services. These results are not significantly different from what was measured in 1998.
- Regionally, residents of Quebec (33%) are least likely to say the media does a "poor job" of covering faith and religion while Ontarians are most likely (44%). Men (43%) are more likely than women (37%) to say the media does a poor job of covering faith and religion.
One third (32%) of all Canadians and half (50%) of the weekly attenders feel that faith and religion receives less media coverage than it should. Half (50%) of all Canadians believe faith obtains the right amount of coverage and 16% believe it receives too much. In contrast, just 6% believe sports receive too little coverage and 9% feel the same way about entertainment. Four in ten feel sports (44%) and entertainment (43%) receive too much coverage. Business news is thought to receive too much coverage by 14% and just the right amount by 63%. Twenty one percent feel there is too little coverage of business news.
- There were no notable differences demographic differences in perceptions of the adequacy of various areas of media coverage.
- These perceptions remain unchanged from 1998. Among all Canadians, the percent believing religion receives too little coverage has not changed significantly in the past five years (36% in 1998 Vs 32% in 2003). Likewise there was no statistically significant change in perception among those who attend religious services weekly (55% in 1998 Vs 50% in 2003).
- Those who regularly attend religious services are slightly more optimistic: 78% of weekly attenders and 81% of monthly attenders feel the media can encourage religious tolerance. There were no significant variations by region or gender.
- Those who attend religious services are much more likely to look to the religious media for information on both their own religious group and on other religious groups (see tables for details).
- British Columbians are most likely to turn to secular sources of information on both their own religious group (44%) and other religious groups (59%).
- Least likely to report that their religious faith is important to their day-to-day lives are British Columbians (49% yes, faith important), men (53% yes) and those aged 18-34 (47% yes).
- Those aged 55 or older are most likely to attend church services weekly (31%) and least likely to never attend church (20%). British Columbians are most likely to never attend services (43%).
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For more information on this news release, please contact:
Andrew Grenville
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900
