Louisiana Survey

The Louisiana Survey is sponsored by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs in Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication. The survey has been conducted each year since 2003 and twice in 2006, establishing rich longitudinal measures of public opinion in Louisiana. The mission of the Louisiana Survey is to establish benchmarks as well as to capture change in residents’ assessments of state government services.  The survey is further dedicated to tracking public opinion on the contemporary policy issues that face the state.  Each iteration of the Louisiana Survey contains core items designed to serve as barometers of public sentiment, including assessments of whether the state is heading in the right direction or wrong direction, perceptions about the most important problems facing the state, as well as evaluations of public revenue sources and spending priorities.

Public Policy Research Lab

The Public Policy Research Lab is a joint effort of the Manship School of Mass Communication’s Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at LSU. We provide a variety of services including survey research, ‘big data’ analytics, social media tracking, and focus group interviews.

The Lab is primarily known for its telephone survey work. PPRL has 54 computer-assisted telephone interview call stations and a corps of highly-trained, well-supervised professional callers. It is one of the largest phone survey data collection facilities in the Southeastern Conference.

The Lab is dedicated to meeting the unique goals and objectives for each project by working closely with those seeking data, research expertise, or analysis. We combine professional capability, the latest data technologies, and the variety of intellectual assets available at LSU to serve our clients’ research needs.

 

Michael Henderson, Lead researcher, analyst and writer

Manship School Associate Professor and Reilly Center Research Affiliate | mbhende1@lsu.edu

Michael Henderson headshotMike Henderson received his Ph.D. in government and social policy from Harvard University. His interests include public opinion and elections. Specifically, his research focuses on how information shapes what citizens learn about public affairs and how they use this knowledge in making decisions. He has been involved in the design of several polls, including the 2007-2008 Associated Press Yahoo New Election Panel Study, which tracked the opinions of voters over the course of the 2008 presidential campaign, and the annual Education Next Poll, administered under the auspices of Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance to track Americans’ opinions of their schools and education reform. He has published research in Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.

Jenée Slocum, Researcher and editor 

Director, Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs | jenee@lsu.edu

Jenee Slocum headshotJenée Slocum is a 1999 graduate of LSU’s Manship School with a Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change from The University of California, Los Angeles.

As the director of the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication, Jenée applies her  experience and enthusiasm for politics, public policy and communications to building and shaping the strategic direction of the Center and leading outreach and engagement for the Manship School. 

Jenée previously served as the agency  education and workforce liaison for both Louisiana Economic Development and the Louisiana Workforce Commission. While in those roles, she successfully collaborated with Louisiana’s higher education and PreK-12 community to adjust legislation and institutional policy focusing state resources on and encouraging state residents to pursue programs leading to high-demand, high-wage job opportunities available in the state. Jenée is  dedicated to improving communities, which drives both her professional and volunteer her  work.