Wagner briefed National Press Foundation fellows in September 2023: Judicial Elections Put Abortion, Voting, LGBTQ Rights on Ballot. 

Michael W. Wagner is a professor in the University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His research, teaching, and service are animated by the question, “how well does democracy work?”  Wagner approaches this question from a variety of perspectives, incorporating into his work the study of political communication, political parties, journalism, public opinion, political psychology, political behavior, religion and politics, the presidency, and biology.

An award-winning teacher, Wagner teaches courses from the 200-to-800-levels focusing on reporting, political communication, media and behavior, physiology and communication, fact-checking (where he runs the fact-checking site The Observatory with Lucas Graves), public opinion and opinion writing. Wagner was a Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence Fellow at UW-Madison in 2012-13 and was named the Hazel R. McClymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow while on the faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s (UNL) Department of Political Science in 2012.  A vote of the student body named Wagner UNL’s Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2009.  His research, teaching, and student mentoring earned him the UNL College of Arts and Sciences distinction of “Academic Star” in 2011. With colleagues Katy Culver and Stacy Forster and his student Megan Duncan, Wagner wrote an ebook called The Media Handbook for SJMC students.

Wagner earned his Bachelor of Journalism degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1998.  He earned his Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University in 2006.  While at Indiana, Wagner was project director for the Center on Congress at Indiana University’s Congressional Election Study in 2006.  Wagner has been on the faculty of the University of Delaware’s Department of Political Science and International Relations (2006-7) where he moderated the televised senate debate between Senator Tom Carper and Jan Ting.  He was on the faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of Political Science (2007-12) and College of Journalism and Mass Communications (2011-2012).  In between his undergraduate and graduate training, he worked as a political reporter for CBS 31/1470 WMBD-AM in Peoria, IL and 1110 KFAB-AM in Omaha, NE.  He also served as a press secretary on a congressional campaign during the 2000 election cycle.

When he isn’t in his office or the classroom, Wagner, a native Minnesotan, enjoys spending time with his family, playing the guitar, golfing, kayaking on Lake Wingra, and fruitlessly rooting for the Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings, and Minnesota Timberwolves.