(RNS) The pope and the president dominated religion news in the American media last year, according to a new study.

The Obama administration’s “faith-based initiative” accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused stories, while two of the top 10 focused on Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the findings on Thursday (March 25).

The role religion plays in the Obama administration garnered the most attention in the media, followed by the pope’s visit to the Middle East. Other top stories included Obama’s speech to the Turkish parliament and Benedict’s pardon of a controversial British bishop who denied the Holocaust.

No single event attracted the attention of the press like Benedict’s visit to the U.S. in 2008. Instead, religious aspects of larger stories, such as abortion funding in the health care bill, appeared frequently in news coverage.

The study found that religion-related stories accounted for 0.8 percent of the mainstream media news hole — the total space or time available for news content in newspapers, television, and other media. This total dropped slightly from the 1 percent coverage in 2008. The number of religion-related topics in the news was similar to the number of education and immigration articles written.

The Pew Forum reported that religion-related topics appeared through new media platforms, such as blogs and social media entries, more than traditional press outlets, such as newspapers, the Internet, television and the radio.