Second ICW symposium focuses on role of journalism in covering public opinion | Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop: Eighty Years of the Minnesota Poll

Published on 2025-08-10 by Benjamin Toff

A second installment of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop: Eighty Years of the Minnesota Poll brought together leading public opinion and journalism scholars and working journalists around tackling questions of representation and the role of journalism in surfacing and interpreting what the public thinks

Benjamin Toff delivers remarks in front of a classroom alongside a screen with text that reads What is journalism's role [responsibility?] in helping citizens and elected officials understand public opinion? — Benjamin Toff delivers introductory remarks at the symposium on May 28, 2025. Photo by Pooja Singh for the Minnesota Journalism Center.

Scholars and practitioners gathered in Murphy Hall on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, for a day-long symposium interrogating what works and what doesn't work when public opinion research methods meet daily journalistic processes when it comes to helping the public gain a better understanding of what people think.

Workshop participants from the Minnesota Journalism Center and affiliated faculty and students from multiple units across the University of Minnesota as well as locally based journalists at several media organizations were joined by leading experts in public opinion, communication, and political science. The event was the second of three symposia designed around the 80th anniversary of the Minnesota Poll to reflect on the poll’s long history, its present applications, and the theoretical and practical issues facing the future of state and local opinion research.

Susan Herbst standing in front of a room delivering her keynote address — Susan Herbst delivers her keynote address at the symposium on May 28, 2025. Photo by Pooja Singh for the Minnesota Journalism Center.

Susan Herbst, University Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut, kicked off the day's discussion by delivering a keynote address reviewing the legacy of opinion research in the 1930s, extending themes covered in her most recent book, A Troubled Birth: The 1930s and American Public Opinion and posing several questions concerning common journalistic practices around coverage of public opinion today.

A panel featuring Shannon McGregor, Michael Trauggott, and Danielle Brown below a large screen depicting images from Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd — Danielle Brown, right, presents an overview of some of her research concerning attitudes of Black Minnesotans following the murder of George Floyd, while serving on a panel with Shannon McGregor and Michael Traugott, left. Photo by Pooja Singh for the Minnesota Journalism Center.

The remainder of the day included panels featuring a mix of interdisciplinary scholars and journalists. University of North Carolina professor Shannon McGregor, Michigan State University professor Danielle Brown, and University of Michigan emeritus professor Michael Traugott led the first panel on theme of "Defining, Measuring, and Reporting on Public Opinion." During the next session, former FiveThirtyEight editor G. Elliott Morris and political journalist Torey Van Oot were joined by PhD student and Microsoft Research affiliate Parker Bach each discussed their own perspective on how polls (and prediction markets) are used and abused in forecasting elections.

Perry Bacon Jr seated at a table reading a laptop — Perry Bacon, Jr., at the symposium on May 28, 2025. Photo by Pooja Singh for the Minnesota Journalism Center.

A final panel included Humphrey School professor Larry Jacobs alongside then-Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon and University of South Carolina political scientist Kathleen Searles who spoke about implications of public opinion research and journalism for democracy itself.

The third and final symposium in this series will focus on the future of state and local opinion research. It will be held on Friday, September 19, 2025 on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.