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Religious and social issues were not prominent in US presidential campaign coverage, study shows (Subscribe to RSS Feed)

Washington, Nov. 21, 2008 (CWNews.com) -

A study of media coverage during this year's US presidential campaign has concluded that there was relatively little in-depth discussion on religion, and that abortion and same-sex marriage were not heavily emphasized. The study seems to undermine the post-election analyses that have suggested the Republican presidential ticket was hurt by the emphasis on social issues.

The single religious topic commanding the most media attention during the presidential campaign was the inaccurate rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to the Pew Forum study, "How the News Media Covered Religion in the General Election. Otherwise the media paid little attention to the candidates' religious beliefs and affiliations.

Religious topics were not ignored in media coverage, the Pew study found. Religious affairs were discussed more frequently than energy problems or environmental issues. Remarkably, in a contest that produced America's first African-American president, racial issues were also far down the list of topics handled in media campaign coverage. The Pew study found that racial issues accounted for 4% of the press coverage during the campaign-- the same percentage accorded to religious topics.

In addition to debunking the rumor that Obama was a Muslim, journalists had other significant opportunities to delve into religious topics. Each candidate had a "pastor problem"-- Obama because of his longtime membership in a church headed by the radical Rev. Jeremiah Wright, John McCain because of an high-profile endorsement he received from an anti-Catholic fundamentalist, Rev. John Hagee. The two leading presidential candidates also participated in a public forum organized by Rev. Rick Warren, the prominent pastor of the Saddleback Church, an Evangelical "megachurch" in California. But while each of these stories drew some press coverage, in terms of media coverage they never approached the prominence of the campaign's two leading issues: the war in Iraq and the American economic crisis.

The Pew Forum concluded that "there was little attempt by the news media during the campaign to comprehensively examine the role of faith in the political values and policies of the candidates, save for those of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin." Palin's status as an Evangelical Christian drew more overall media interest than, for instance, Joseph Biden's delicate predicament as a Catholic who supports legal abortion.

The abortion issue itself was not a major factor in the campaign coverage-- a fact that casts greater doubt on the post-election analyses blaming "social conservatives" for the Republican loss. The Pew study found that the major "social issues" discussed during the campaign-- abortion, same-sex marriage, and embryonic stem-cell research-- received "minimal attention" from the media during the campaign, accounting for "less than 1% of the campaign news overall." Most of the stories that did appear in this category again focused on the relatively conservative views of Sarah Palin rather than the liberal views of Joseph Biden or the strikingly strong stand in favor of unrestricted abortion taken by Barack Obama.