JULY 2024: CANADIAN INTEREST IN AMERICAN NEWS & POLITICS
Every month we provide a visualization of the CIE that highlights key findings. In July, we saw a flurry of media activity coming from the United States, ranging from the assassination attempt of Donald Trump to Biden dropping out of the presidential race. We investigated the extent to which Canadians and the Canadian information ecosystem is oriented towards American versus Canadian content.
As demonstrated in the left side of the figure, we identified where average Canadian interest lies (white bars) on a spectrum of Canadian to American news and politics. We find that interest in Canadian news and politics are essentially equal, with Canadians reporting that they find Canadian news and politics only marginally more interesting than American (23.9% versus 21.7%), the majority report being equally interested in both (54.5%). We also see that Canadians care slightly more about federal election outcomes in Canada, with more than 4 out of 5 Canadians (81.8%) caring a fair amount or a great deal about the outcome of the next Canadian federal election compared to nearly 3 out of 4 Canadians (73.8%) for the upcoming US election. Finally, looking at attention paid to each country’s politics, we observe that Canadians pay more attention to Canadian rather than American politics, with 12.1% of Canadians focused mainly on American politics, as compared to 41.8% paying equal attention (46.1% pay more attention to Canadian politics).
On the right side of the figure, we assess engagement with the highest trending topics from April 2024 to present from the United States (Blue) versus Canada (Red) – Trump & Biden versus wildfires, foreign interference, and NATO – to better understand where Canadians are paying attention. By looking at the scale and frequency of peaks in engagement over time, we find Canadians on social media are attentive to American politics (blue peaks are often more frequent and larger than red peaks). We observe sustained and extensive discussion about the US over the past three months among Canadian media, politicians, and influencers, with prominent spikes in engagement after key events, such as the conviction of Donald Trump in May, his attempted assassination in July, and Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election. Attention paid to these rival or exceed all Canadian news stories, with the notable exception of the massive spike of outpouring of the expressions of sympathy and support for those who have lost their homes due to the Jasper wildfire in late July 2024.
In summary, it appears as though Canadians care similarly about Canadian and US news, politics and election outcomes as our own.
Key findings for July:
Canadians care equally about US news and politics
More than one third of Canadians believe that the United States covertly influences Canadian politics
Significant increase of attention paid to news and politics
One third of Canadians report using print for news weekly