News media, pollsters and election campaigns in Quebec

Quebeckers are generally more trusting of the news media than Canadians in the ROC.

Recent data from Ipsos-Reid:

55% of Canadians agree with the sentiment that ‘the news media’s primary goal is to find and broadcast the truth’ while a minority (45%) agree that ‘the news media goal is to run a business and make money’. Quebeckers (62%) are the most likely to believe that the media is in the business of finding and broadcasting the truth.

When the Government and media come into conflict because government officials claim that news reports are not accurate, most Canadians (84%) tend to side with the media. Quebeckers (88%) are the most likely to believe the news media.
(Source: Ipsos-Reid for the Canadian Journalism Foundation, May 2008)

This is consistent with data from five years ago from Leger Marketing:

62% of Canadians agree with the statement ‘Canadian media always present unbiased information about current events’ while 73% of Quebeckers are most likely to agree.
(Source: Leger Marketing, April 2002)

Quebeckers are also more likely than Canadians in the ROC to trust pollsters.

63% of Canadians say they trust pollsters. Quebeckers (78%) are the most likely to trust pollsters.
(Leger Marketing, January 2004)

That’s good news for political parties hoping to shape public opinion in Quebec via these influencers. But that’s assuming the news media provide the level of coverage you usually see during an election. 

This doesn’t see to be the case so far according to data from the information broker and aggregator  firm Influence. According to Influence, an important news item usually gets 1% of global media coverage in Quebec. It would usually be front-page news for one or two days. News that gets 5%+ is considered significant. A scandal like the Bernier-Couillard news got more than 7%... And election campaigns usually get more than 5% - but not this time or, at least, not so far. According to Influence, and as reported in Infopresse, the federal elections got 2,78% coverage this past week.

Today's front page of the Journal de Montreal. I guess it could be described as election coverage: "Jack Layton is the sexiest leader." and a politics-related story: Jean Lafleur enjoying life in Montreal post-Gomery. I wonder if Influence tracks this stuff too as election coverage...