Projects per year
Personal profile
Personal profile
Benjamin Toff is an assistant professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Political Psychology and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He studies media audiences and political engagement, public opinion, and changing journalistic practices.
He is currently on partial leave while leading a collaborative, multi-country research project studying trust in news while serving as a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. He is also currently at work on two book projects. One is an in-depth examination of “news avoidance” and infrequent news use among audiences in the UK, Spain, and the US. The second book explores the changing role played by opinion polls in news coverage of American politics. This work extends research conducted as part of his doctoral dissertation, which received the American Political Science Association’s E.E. Schattschneider Award for best doctoral dissertation in the field of American government.
His work has been published in the Journal of Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, Political Communication, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journalism, Journalism Studies, and Digital Journalism. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 and a BA in social studies from Harvard in 2005. Prior to entering academia, he worked as a journalist and researcher at The New York Times.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
PhD, University of Wisconsin
Award Date: May 14 2016
BA, Harvard University
Award Date: Jun 3 2005
External Positions
Senior Research Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Jul 1 2020 → …
Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Aug 1 2017 → Jun 30 2020
Research Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Aug 1 2016 → Jul 31 2017
Research Interest Keywords
- journalism studies
- political communication
- public opinion
- news audiences
- political psychology
Fingerprint
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 3 Active
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Avoiding the News: Vanishing Audiences for Journalism
Toff, B. J., Nielsen, R. K. & Palmer, R. A.
8/1/16 → …
Project: Research project
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The Blind Scorekeepers: How Public Opinion Gets Defined in American Politics
4/15/14 → …
Project: Research project
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Evaluating responses to health-related messages about the financial costs of climate change
Limaye, V. S. & Toff, B., Mar 1 2023, In: Journal of Climate Change and Health. 10, 100218.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Scopus citations -
Examining Assumptions Around How News Avoidance Gets Defined: The Importance of Overall News Consumption, Intention, and Structural Inequalities
Palmer, R., Toff, B. & Nielsen, R. K., 2023, In: Journalism Studies. 24, 6, p. 697-714 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Shortcuts to trust: Relying on cues to judge online news from unfamiliar sources on digital platforms
Ross Arguedas, A. A., Badrinathan, S., Mont’Alverne, C., Toff, B., Fletcher, R. & Nielsen, R. K., 2023, (Accepted/In press) In: Journalism.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
“Fair and Balanced”: What News Audiences in Four Countries Mean When They Say They Prefer Impartial News
Mont’Alverne, C., Badrinathan, S., Ross Arguedas, A., Toff, B., Fletcher, R. & Nielsen, R., 2023, In: Journalism Studies. 24, 9, p. 1131-1148 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Scopus citations -
How News Feels: Anticipated Anxiety as a Factor in News Avoidance and a Barrier to Political Engagement
Toff, B. & Nielsen, R. K., 2022, In: Political Communication. 39, 6, p. 697-714 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access4 Scopus citations
Datasets
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ReadMe.txt
Toff, B. J. & Toff, B., Harvard Dataverse, 2019
DOI: 10.7910/dvn/x7nksl/aua1me, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/X7NKSL/AUA1ME
Dataset
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Effects_of_Polls_H1log.txt
Toff, B. J. & Toff, B., Harvard Dataverse, 2019
DOI: 10.7910/dvn/x7nksl/lqdffg, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/X7NKSL/LQDFFG
Dataset
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Effects_of_Polls_H3log.txt
Toff, B. J. & Toff, B., Harvard Dataverse, 2019
DOI: 10.7910/dvn/x7nksl/yapgwv, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/X7NKSL/YAPGWV
Dataset
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Effects_of_Polls.tab
Toff, B. J. & Toff, B., Harvard Dataverse, 2019
DOI: 10.7910/dvn/x7nksl/qfasf9, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/X7NKSL/QFASF9
Dataset
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Effects_of_Polls_H3.r
Toff, B. J. & Toff, B., Harvard Dataverse, 2019
DOI: 10.7910/dvn/x7nksl/mafjig, https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/X7NKSL/MAFJIG
Dataset
Press/Media
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Columbia Journalism Review: Does the Way Journalists Present Themselves on Social Media Reduce Audience Trust in News?
12/3/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment or Interview
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Euronews Tonight: News media across the world face dwindling public trust, new report finds
9/10/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment or Interview
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El País: Combatir la indiferencia del público es el gran desafío de los medios para ganar credibilidad, según un estudio
9/9/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Journalism.co.uk: Indifference, not hostility, is the main barrier to building trust in news
9/9/21
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment or Interview
Fellowships, Honors, and Prizes
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E.E. Schattschneider Award
Toff, Benjamin J (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Thomas Patterson Dissertation Award
Toff, Benjamin J (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)