Martin Johnson, Dean of LSU’s Manship School, dies at 50

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Martin Johnson, the dean of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, has died, the university’s interim president said in an online announcement Tuesday.

The cause of death was not announced.

“Our entire LSU Family mourns the loss of Dean Johnson, who was a wonderful colleague, friend, father, and husband,” Interim President Thomas Galligan wrote. “We will be forever grateful for Dean Johnson’s countless contributions to the Manship School and LSU, and we will miss him terribly.I

Johnson, 50, earned his bachelor’s degree at the Manship School in 1991 and is a former editor of LSU’s student newspaper, The Daily Reveille. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Rice University. He was named dean of the Manship school in 2018.

Johnson also held the Kevin P. Reilly Sr. Chair in Political Communication. According to biographical information from LSU, he studied media, politics, public opinion, political psychology and public policy. He was a co-author of the 2013 book, “Changing Minds or Changing Channels: Partisan News in an Age of Choice.”

Before joining the LSU faculty, Johnson served as department chair and professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside, according to the LSU website.