With the US and Canadian elections creating hype, MiC wanted to know which forms of media – TV, newspaper, radio or the web – were most influencing Canadians.
Results from a sample of 1,000 Canadians in Toronto-based Delvinia’s Asking Canadians Election 2008 poll revealed that 48% of Canadians said TV most influenced their attitudes towards a party or individual politician. Newspapers came in at 24%, followed by radio talk shows, online news and blogs at 8%. Recently, this poll has also found that 61% of Canadians sampled will follow the incoming voting results this evening on TV, while 9% will use a TV and web combo to get informed tonight.
Adam Froman, CEO/president of Delvinia, says the media influences are understandable. ‘You can’t turn on a television or open a newspaper these days without being inundated with stories on the economy and the election,’ Froman tells MiC. ‘However, the role of online news and blogs has become much more significant given the depth of content and the breadth of discussion that is occurring. If the question were ‘If you were looking for election coverage…,’ I would bet that Canadians would say that online would probably be first.’
In the same poll, 72% of the sampled group admitted to having seen advertising for the Conservatives, followed by the Liberals and NDP with 52% and 40%, respectively. If they had to cast a vote based solely on their ad campaigns, 43% would vote for the Conservatives, and only 21% and 20% would vote for the NDP and Liberals respectively.
A whopping 84% of respondents claimed ad campaigns from political parties were not a credible source of information. And 86% said that ad campaigns did not influence their votes.
