Symposium: The Future of State and Local Opinion Research

This Minnesota Journalism Center event — the final  installation of a three-part series of symposia commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Minnesota Poll — looks ahead, to the future of public polling research, and its role in journalism. 

This symposium, which will be held on the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus, will focus the conversation forward: How are new tools and technologies changing the way we take the pulse of the public? And how is public sentiment changing over time?

• Symposium 1:  The History of the Minnesota Poll | agenda
• Symposium 2:  The Role of Journalism in Covering Public Opinion |  agenda
• Symposium 3:  The Future of State and Local Opinion Research

Since 1944, the Minnesota Poll has catalogued the opinions and perspectives of generations of Minnesota residents. When it launched, polling was just beginning to replace the straw poll as a way to track the public's perspective on issues. The results launched in what was then the Minnesota Sunday Tribune.

Early iterations of the poll tracked Minnesotans' experiences in their daily lives, and their perspectives on the changing state around them. The Minnesota Poll has evolved quite a bit since then, informing daily and investigative reporting for journalists across the state, sparking collaborations for newsrooms and taking a measure of residents' feelings about the issues facing Minnesota and their own families.

Data, history and the archive: More about eight decades of the Minnesota Poll

This event is the third and final in a series hosted by the Minnesota Journalism Center as part of a larger interdisciplinary collaborative workshop marking the 80th anniversary of the Minnesota Poll, one of the longest continuously run state-level opinion surveys in the country. 

Unlike the first public event on the history of the poll, we are limiting the final two symposia to invited academics, journalists, and select affiliates of the school to facilitate a more focused set of conversations among the assembled participants.

This symposium is being convened by Minnesota Journalism Center director and Hubbard School associate professor Benjamin Toff. 

Questions about the symposium? Contact Ben at [email protected].