TORONTO — Canadians who follow the news daily are more likely to get a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to them, compared to those who do not, according to a new survey from the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF).
The survey also found a correlation between Canadians’ enthusiasm for the Covid-19 vaccine and their trust in the news.
“Our research shows that those who say they trust media and journalists are more informed about the benefits and risks of Covid-19 vaccines than those who do not trust media and instead get information from other sources,” said Natalie Turvey, president and executive director of the CJF, in a press release. “In addition, this same group scored much higher on our quiz on facts about vaccines, indicating that their news literacy is high.”
On behalf of the CJF, Pollara Strategic Insights conducted an online survey among a randomly selected sample of 2,013 Canadian adults (18+) from March 3 to 9, 2021.
According to the research, 61% of Canadians will get a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to them, while 8% say they never will. Canadians who will get vaccinated right away also say they follow the news more frequently (78% consume news daily) compared to those who will never get vaccinated (53% consume news daily).
Additionally, Canadians who will never get the vaccine are more likely to have knowingly shared false news than those who will be vaccinated (20% versus 13%), according to the survey, which also found there is equal confidence in the ability to spot false news among those who will and will not get the vaccine (72% versus 71%), “suggesting that, despite the source, people believe what they read,” says the CJF’s press release.
“The results from this survey underscore the fact that credible journalism is essential to Canadians,” said CJF board chair Kathy English. “Especially during this global pandemic, with misinformation about vaccines readily available online, the value of journalists to provide trustworthy news and information that informs life-saving decisions has never been more important. Trust in news has become a clear public health issue.”
Here are some of the highlights of the survey results:
- Canadians who are planning to get a vaccine place more trust in journalists and media than those who do not plan to get a vaccine (86% versus 51%).
- Of those Canadians who scored highest on the survey’s quiz about vaccines, 87% say they will get the vaccine and 78% say they consume news daily.
- Of those Canadians who failed the quiz, almost half say they are not planning to get the vaccine right away (24% say never, 25% are uncertain), and just over half (56%) check the news daily.
- 63% of Canadians are accessing news stories more often than they did prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Canadians getting the vaccine are most likely to have gotten their Covid-19 information from public health officials (57% versus 28% of those not getting vaccinated) or TV news (55% versus 23% of those not getting vaccinated).
- Overall, Canadians get most of their news from TV (48% every day), followed by radio (31% every day).
- Online, 27% of Canadians get daily news from a TV station’s website, or by searching the Internet via Google or another news engine (27%).
For more results from CJF’s survey, please click here.
