Religion-related campaign stories made up 4 percent of overall media coverage, the Pew Center found.

The most religion-related coverage revolved around the rumors that Obama is a Muslim, followed by the focus on Sarah Palin's religion and family.

Meanwhile, there was little attempt by the news media during the campaign to comprehensively examine the role of faith in the political values and policies of the candidates, save for those of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

And when religion-focused campaign stories were covered by the mainstream press, often the context was negative, controversial or focused on a perceived political problem.

Key findings include:

* While [religion coverage] was less than coverage of the Iraq war (6%) or the economic crisis (9%), it was more prominent than coverage of energy issues (2%) and the environment (less than 1%), and equal to coverage of the Republican National Convention (4%). During the general election, storylines related to religion ...

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