Benjamin Toff, PhD
I study trust in news, news avoidance, public opinion, and changing media.
My research broadly focuses on the changing relationship between news outlets, the public, and how people navigate the political information environment. I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In addition from 2020-2023, I was a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford where I led the Trust in News Project, a 3-year inductive, public-centered, comparative research project examining the drivers of trust in news across Brazil, India, the UK, and US. You can read more about my research here.
My CV
Updated
November 2023
Prior to entering academia, I spent several years working as a journalist. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, The Boston Globe, and The Harvard Crimson. From 2005-2011, I was a full time researcher and assistant to then-New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich.
I was born in Los Angeles but grew up mainly in Tucson, Ariz. I graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in social studies and received a PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication
University of Minnesota
206 Church St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
bjtoff@umn.edu
+1 612-625-4381
