International Reporting in Canadian Newspapers: Results of a Survey of Daily Newspaper Editors

<jats:p> Research demonstrates that the press performs an important role in interpreting world events for the Canadian population (both the masses and the elites) and serves as an information conduit linking the government and the governed in the policy-formation process. This study examines both of these roles of the press based on data collected from a questionnaire that was mailed to the editors of Canada’s 107 daily newspapers in the spring of 1995. The data is also compared to that generated in a similar study of Canadian newspaper editors conducted in 1988. The study reveals that editors believe the mass public is much more powerful than newspapers in influencing Canadian foreign policy. Paradoxically, they rank international stories at the bottom of their hierarchies of importance, and the number of international stories published is declining. This limits both mass and elite input into the foreign policy process, and could prove to have a significant negative political impact. </jats:p>