Research Memo #1: Media, Knowledge and Misinformation
Taylor Owen, Peter Loewen, Derek Ruths, Aengus Bridgman, Robert Gorwa, Meghan Keenan, Stephanie MacLellan, Eric Merkley, Andrew Potter, Beata Skazinetsky & Oleg Zhilin
August 2019
Executive Summary
KEY FINDINGS
Consumption of traditional print, broadcast and online media remains relatively high across partisan lines. Alternative media sources that cover politics from an overtly ideological perspective are more prevalent on Twitter than among the general public.
Canadians are somewhat trusting of traditional news outlets as a source for political news, especially compared to political parties and social media.
Exposure to both mainstream media and, to a greater extent, social media is associated with higher levels of misinformation. One key point of vulnerability is the greater tendency of media consumers with strong partisan tendencies to become misinformed with news exposure, especially via social media.
The environment has emerged as the dominant policy issue for Canadians, though markedly less so for Conservative party supporters. The topic was also prominent among political candidates and journalists on Twitter. However, other issues that the public identified as important—such as healthcare and the economy—were less likely to be discussed by candidates and journalists.
This is the first report from the Digital Democracy Project, a partnership between the Public Policy Forum and the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. The goal of this report is to provide an initial snapshot of the Canadian political media ecosystem leading up to this fall’s federal election.
The project uses data from both public opinion polling and online media analysis to examine the media habits of the broader Canadian public as well as the political and journalistic class, with an eye to understanding the various relationships between media use, partisanship, political knowledge, and concern over policy issues. This initial report is intended to serve as a baseline from which changes throughout the election campaign can be measured.
