News Tunes in to the State with Minnesota's Diverse Communities Survey

ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 12, 2021 – MPR News has partnered with APM Research Lab to tune in to the perspectives and opinions of Minnesotans across the state, with a special focus on voices less often included in the mainstream narrative. The resulting Minnesota’s Diverse Communities survey reached more than 1,500 residents with intentional outreach to gain valuable perspectives from racial and ethnic groups across the state. The survey data is available to the public with the goal of increasing awareness of perspectives across Minnesota’s communities. Additionally, the data will be used by local news outlets across the state through reporting partnerships with MPR News.

Launched in April 2021, the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities survey provides an ear to the communities MPR is working to reach in new and meaningful ways. It also offers perspectives that help MPR authentically serve these audiences, creating content that represents them and resonates with them. In turn, more robust reporting about and in these communities informs Minnesota about the views and perspectives of all its community members.

Topics covered in the survey questions include:

• COVID-19 information and vaccines

• Inclusion

• Police, courts and safety

• Quality of life

• Discrimination

• Schools

• Arts and culture

• Media/news outlets

• Trust in institutions

• Public k-12 education

The results of the Minnesota's Diverse Communities survey will be rolling out over the next several weeks in regular installments from APM Research Lab and across stories from MPR News, as well as reporting partners across the state.

This week, MPR News reported on the survey findings related to trust in police. Key insights in this area include:

• A strong majority of white Minnesotans (71 percent) report that they trust the police in Minnesota to do what is right just about always or most of the time, compared to only 43 percent of BIPOC Minnesotans. Among BIPOC Minnesotans, the percentage trusting the police varies: 60 percent among Asians, 51 percent among Latinx, 43 percent among Indigenous, and 21 percent among Black Minnesotans.

• Over half of Indigenous and Black Minnesotan adults report that they have personally experienced police discrimination due to their race or ethnicity. This compares to 30 percent of Latinx Minnesotans, 24 percent of Asian Minnesotans, and 5 percent of white Minnesotans.

• Sixty-five percent of white Minnesotans think that the Minnesota courts and justice system just about always or most of the time treat members of their racial group fairly compared to slightly more than one-fifth of BIPOC Minnesotans (22 percent). Among BIPOC Minnesotans, the percentage indicating that they typically receive fair treatment by the courts ranges from 34 percent among Asians and 27 percent among Latinx Minnesotans, to only 11 percent of Black and 10 percent of Indigenous Minnesotans.

Minnesota news consumers can expect coverage in the coming weeks and months resulting from the insight gleaned from the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities survey. In addition to informing MPR programming and partner reporting in outlets across the state, the survey will also serve as a resource and public service for valuable insight for community partners and other organizations across Minnesota.

This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

Audiences can learn more about the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities survey here.

About MPR News

MPR News has long been recognized as one of the foremost journalistic organizations in the Upper Midwest, reaching news consumers across all platforms. Reaching more than 600,000 listeners each week, the MPR News radio signal can be heard by 95 percent of Minnesotans. MPR News has received numerous awards for its reporting, including George Foster Peabody Awards, the Alfred I. DuPont Award and the RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award. Visit mprnews.org for the latest regional, national and international headlines.

Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio, PSA and PPM Persons 12+, 6a-12m, Fall ’20.

About APM Research Lab

The APM Research Lab is a division of American Public Media aimed at informing the public by producing credible research- and analysis-based content. The Research Lab conducts research projects of all types – surveys, demographic analyses, literature reviews, and more – and informs the work of partner organizations and the broader public through traditional reports, as well as infographics, blog posts, interactives, presentations, and other platforms. For more information, visit apmresearchlab.org.