The panel discussion was one of many workshops at the Conference, which has drawn more than 270 faith and media leaders from across the country. Mr. Desbarats said media organizations that want to improve their coverage of religion will have to employ journalists who understand those on the other side of the growing gap. Andrew Grenville, vice-president of the Angus Reid Group, said regular churchgoers believe the media don't care about people of faith, and think less of the media for it. Mr. Grenville said faith can no longer be equated to organized religion, because more than six in 10 Canadians, including many churchgoers, now say they don't have to attend church to be good Christians, and also hold opinions that would not be considered orthodox by Christian churches. But he said the more important faith is to Canadians, the more likely they are to donate to charity, do volunteer work and be active in their communities.
Faith is the underlying factor that explains why people do what they do.
A scan of 26 major Canadian newspapers prepared for the conference showed that the vast majority of religion coverage in Canadian newspapers over three weeks in February, March and April concerned Roman Catholics and Jews. Author Lois Sweet examined 1,300 clippings and said that, although her survey was unscientific, any visitor from outer space who read the newspapers would conclude that Canada's largest religious groups are Roman Catholics and Jews. Canada's 1991 census showed that 45.7 percent of Canadians were Roman Catholics, while only 1.2 percent are Jewish. Canada's Protestants, who represented 36.5 percent of the population in 1991, got relatively little coverage, and minorities like Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, which make up almost 2.8 percent of the population, got little coverage other than in news wire stories from other parts of the world.