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Mike Wagner

@prowag.bsky.social
5.3K followers 850 following 476 posts

William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea, Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, U of Wisconsin-Madison. Director, Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Inflated sense of karaoke ability. 10/10 Room Rater.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Mike Wagner
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young @dannagal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This crucial work can help journalists cover elections in ways that serve - rather than undermine - democracy. Useful guidelines and an important mission.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Spice the hill! @uwsjmc.bsky.social uwflamingos.com/leaderboards/
uwflamingos.com
Leaderboards - Fill The Hill
Leaderboards
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication @uwsjmc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The countdown is on! The flamingos will land on Bascom Hill tomorrow at 5 pm and you'll have 24 hours to support the SJMC. Plus, when we receive 121 gifts, @prowag.bsky.social will brave the heat in our second annual Spice the Hill challenge! Bookmark our giving page: uwflamingos.com/campaign/jou...
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Give for the right to see me eat some hot wings! And give to help our amazing students, staff, and faculty do innovative, exciting things to contribute to our community!
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Glad to be welcomed to the occupation…
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UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication @uwsjmc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The flamingos are almost here! 🦩 Next week, support our students and share your SJMC pride. Plus, when we reach 121 gifts, Director @prowag.bsky.social will take on the Spice the Hill challenge! 🔥 Learn more and bookmark our giving page at the link below. 🔗 uwflamingos.com/campaign/jou...
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The All the President’s Men Ted Lasso thing is marvelous.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My mom had polio when she was five. She was living on a US military base in Japan (1947). Four kids on the base died. She was the only survivor.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Not at all. You’re doing heroic work. Not that Biebs isn’t a hero.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
There was a 49 day work stoppage due to the cancellation of a grant. #resist
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Bieber Log, Day 5,847: Did not hear from Bieber.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This election season, our team at the UW Center for an Informed Public will again be working to help people navigate the increasingly convoluted information flows surrounding U.S. Elections. Since 2020, we’ve tracked rumors about voting & election integrity. uwcip.substack.com/p/our-electi...
uwcip.substack.com
Our election rumor research work is ramping up for the 2026 U.S. midterms
Subscribe to our Election Rumor Rundowns, get in touch, and collaborate
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Best piece I’ve read on this. After living it, I just want to say I appreciate your work.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 02/09/2026
There was no "censorship industrial compex" under the Biden administration. But the MAGA officials who continue to believe in it have done a lot of damage. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
MAGA’s Imaginary Censorship-Industrial Complex
The conspiracy theory that persists even though no evidence supports it
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I have made a terrible mistake.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I have made a terrible mistake.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication @uwsjmc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Calling all SJMC flock-stars! UW's pinkest tradition returns in one month. This year, when we receive 121 gifts, Director @prowag.bsky.social will brave the heat of four super spicy wings in an interview with our Communications Interns! Save the date and learn more: sjmc.wisc.edu/news/flock-o...
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The Little Chill
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I wrote this because most journalists facing this pressure can’t. The paper we count on to check authoritarianism spiked an investigation into the Democratic Party because the party’s lawyers threatened to sue. Holding authoritarians accountable starts with holding your own side accountable.
data4democracy.substack.com
With Fear and Favor
Institutions don’t have courage. They have incentives.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Charles Franklin @pollsandvotes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
A surprise winner in a chaotic primary. charlesatpollsandvotes.substack.com/p/a-look-at-...
charlesatpollsandvotes.substack.com
A Look at 2026 Primary Polling in Wisconsin
A surprise winner in a chaotic race
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Those monsters at Tempur-Pedic. .
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
How many absentees in Milwaukee County were cast when Crowley was out of the race? Kind of amazing that that detail may affect who wins with WI Democratic primary.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Barry Burden @bcburden.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
How to pronounce those Wisconsin county names misspronouncer.com/counties/
misspronouncer.com
Counties -
Wisconsin has more than 190 cities, 400 villages, 1,000+ towns, and 1,000+ unincorporated places. Learn how to pronounce them all!
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
They’ll put anyone on TV! Good job on MSNOW @bcburden.bsky.social!
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
When Scott Walker first ran for governor, he dropped out to endorse the eventual nominee, running four years later and winning. David Crowley may have sped up that same process by three years and ten months by dropping out, endorsing the then frontrunner and getting back in the same race.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
And to think that I learned on my first day of grad school that it wasn’t rational to vote.
Shows a few hundred votes out of 500,000 separating two candidates
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
What a day/week/month
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Barry Burden @bcburden.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Tiffany’s congressional voting record is pretty far to the right & his running mate is a real social conservative madison.com/news/state-r...
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
One way to interpret the results as they come in here in Wisconsin is that the Marquette Law School poll hit Hong’s support and the undecideds moved in a wave to Crowley. Not sure if that’s what happened, but it is consistent with the data so far. Older folks were more likely to be undecided.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
What a remarkable primary.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
New from me: More than a trillion dollars flow through the federal government in grants. We have more and more evidence that the Trump administration has been directing those grants on purely partisan grounds, denying them to blue states. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/governing-...
donmoynihan.substack.com
Governing without Accountability
Trump only wants to be President of some of America, not all of America
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
We find this as well.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
John Sands @iohn.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
But there’s much more to learn from this rich survey of nearly 26,000 respondents. As with all our surveys, the full dataset is available for additonal scrutiny and analysis. Take a deeper dive here: knightfoundation.org/articles/new...
knightfoundation.org
Knight Foundation-SSRS Poll: Americans Feel Free Expression is Eroding - Knight Foundation
For more than two decades, Knight Foundation has commissioned research to better understand Americans’ lived experience with the First Amendment and free expression. As the country marks its 250th ann...
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
John Sands @iohn.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵
knightfoundation.org
Knight Foundation-SSRS Poll: Americans Feel Free Expression is Eroding - Knight Foundation
For more than two decades, Knight Foundation has commissioned research to better understand Americans’ lived experience with the First Amendment and free expression. As the country marks its 250th ann...
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Russell Sage Foundation @russellsagefdn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Why do some policies create change while others don’t? Jamila Michener suggests the answer isn’t just policy. It’s whether communities have the power to shape and sustain it. Watch here: youtu.be/gYcQFRYqE4w?...
youtu.be
Why So Many Americans Feel Disconnected From Democracy | Jamila Michener
YouTube video by Russell Sage Foundation
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication @uwsjmc.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This May, the Public Tech Media Lab hosted a Digital Investigations Bootcamp, the first hands-on OSINT training program in the Midwest. The bootcamp offered journalists and students the opportunity to gain hands-on practice with a variety of OSINT tools. sjmc.wisc.edu/news/public-...
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Excited to participate on the @aejmc panel honoring @dvshah.bsky.social’s innovative scholarship, transformative mentoring, and field building.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 25/07/2026
Admirable clarity @science.org
The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.

That’s it. That’s the story
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Let’s get it on.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Oh we had a ball. But this old man is sore!
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I had more fun than a man my age should be allowed to have. Thank you so much for playing and playing so well. And being so tolerant.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The US global dominance in higher ed & scientific innovation was based on strong govt investment and an ability to attract top international talent. Trump is weakening both: "In this century, overall, the émigré fraction for U.S. Nobels in physics, chemistry and medicine now stands at 40 percent."
Last year, before flying to Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize, Dr. Yaghi in an interview with The New York Times voiced concern about Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, saying that they endanger the nation’s system of universities, companies and governments that promote scientific excellence.
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Mass comm scholars might find parallels to thinking about the information ecology, affordances of different platforms, and institutions in this smart article/provocation.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Trump just fired all three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the agency with no commissioners just months before the midterms
votebeat.org
Trump fires all commissioners of federal election agency
Months before the midterms, the only federal agency dedicated solely to election administration is now unable to do anything.
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Important new article about how we ought to be thinking about and conceptualizing the changing religious landscape in the U.S. from my good friend @bsteens.bsky.social and his collaborators. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Religion Unbundled: Toward a Twenty-First-Century Paradigm for the Sociology of American Religion
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Important new article about how we ought to be thinking about and conceptualizing the changing religious landscape in the U.S. from my good friend @bsteens.bsky.social and his collaborators. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Religion Unbundled: Toward a Twenty-First-Century Paradigm for the Sociology of American Religion
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
“Faks assemble?”
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Reposted by Mike Wagner
Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
It is hard to put the School in better hands than with @prowag.bsky.social. Stellar scholar, empathetic, professional, outstanding mentor, forward looking, good colleague. Wishing you and the SJMC community all the best 👏🏼
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Mike Wagner @prowag.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Thank you, friend! This is very kind and greatly appreciated.
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