“What we have here is a failure to communicate”: Same-Sex Marriage, Evangelicals, and the Canadian News Media

Abstract

Abstract: From the time it was introduced, evangelicals in Canada were fervently opposed to the federal government's same-sex marriage legislation and from 2003 to 2006 several evangelical organizations waged an extensive lobbying campaign against it. To persuade the public and federal politicians to support their position, these organizations employed a sophisticated communication strategy that focused on three core arguments. The arguments, which were worked into speeches, petitions, presentations, letters, and media-savvy talking points, were not based on theological ideals but secular, empirical data. This study content analyzed news coverage from Canada's national newspapers and national television news programs that focused on evangelicals and the same-sex marriage debate. Based on the extant literature it was hypothesized that in their news coverage, in order to mitigate the influence of the evangelicals' position (with which they disagreed), journalists would ignore/omit the evangelicals' three core, non-religious arguments for opposing same-sex marriage. The hypothesis was supported.