Research Scientist and Assistant Director of Research

Jay Jennings is a Research Scientist and Assistant Director of Research at the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research, and a research fellow at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Temple University in 2015. He studies the media’s role in motivating, discouraging, and informing engagement with the political process. Jay’s work draws on political communication, public opinion, and political psychology to help us understand how the media influences political participation. His research has been published in academic journals such as Political Communication, Public Administration Review, Urban Affairs Review, and Journal of Information Technology & Politics and has been highlighted in such outlets as the Washington Post, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Nieman Journalism Lab, and City Lab.