ABOUT

A.Jay Wagner is an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Marquette University, He previously taught at Bradley University, Butler University and Indiana University, where he also earned his doctorate of mass communications. His research focuses on media law with a special interest in access to government information and freedom of information laws. He recently concluded a two-year term on the NARA-sponsored Federal FOIA Advisory Committee.

Dr. Wagner’s research has won awards from the NFOIC, AEJMC and NCA, and articles have been published in both peer-reviewed academic journals and law reviews. He has produced two grant-supported FOI audits. One exploring the administration of public records laws across 10 states and a 2017 audit of Illinois FOIA compliance.

An ongoing project involves maintaining a dataset of FOIA annual reports from the 15 cabinet-level departments. The project started as part of his dissertation and has been kept current since. The data were compiled through a combination of aggregating online reports, FOIA requests and trips to the National Archives in D.C. You can access the dataset here, and you can access the underlying annual reports here (nearly all cabinet-level annual reports from 1975-2019).

A.Jay has taught a range of courses at Marquette University, Indiana University, Butler University and Bradley University to undergraduate and graduate students, including journalism skills, communication law, communication ethics, critical media studies, access to government information, a First Amendment seminar and an honors section on transparency theory. He has worked professionally as a journalist, primarily writing for Sun-Times Media in the Chicagoland and the Herald Times in Bloomington, Indiana. He has also worked in press rights advocacy, as a summer fellow at the International Press Institute in Vienna, Austria, and for six months at the McCormick Foundation in Chicago. 

He received his PhD from Indiana University, an MA from DePaul University and a BS from the University of Dayton.

View CV

RESEARCH

Tale of two requesters: How public records law experiences differ by requester type
Journalism (2024)

Owning the police: Crime data, copyright, and public information
Journal of Civic Information (2023)

To fee or not to fee: Requester attitudes toward freedom of information charges
Government Information Quarterly (2023)

Whose public virtue? Exploring freedom of information efficacy and support
Administration & Society (2022)

Popular information: An analysis of FOI use and behavior
Government Information Quarterly (2022)

Inherent Frictions and Deliberate Frustrations: Examining the Legal Variables of State FOI Law Administration
Journal of Civic Information (2021)

Piercing the veil: Examining demographic and political variables in state FOI law administration
Government Information Quarterly (2021)

Pandering, Priority or Political Weapon: Presidencies, Political Parties & the Freedom of Information Act
Communication Law & Policy (2021)

A Structural Imperative: Freedom of Information, the First Amendment and the Accountability Function of Expression
Quinnipiac Law Review (2020)

“Longstanding, Systemic Weaknesses”: Hillary Clinton’s Emails, FOIA’s Defects and Affirmative Disclosure
University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy (2019)

A Socialist Newspaper, the First Amendment and the Espionage Act
Journalism History First Amendment Essay Series (2019)

“Courts Coverage” in The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (2019)

A Secret Police: The Lasting Impact of the 1986 FOIA Amendments
Communication Law & Policy (2018)

Essential or extravagant: considering FOIA budgets, costs and fees
Government Information Quarterly (2017)
Appendix to Essential or Extravagant

Controlling Discourse, Foreclosing Recourse; The Creep of the Glomar Response
Communication Law & Policy (2016)
Republished in The U.S. Freedom of Information Act at 50 (2018)

Evaluating FOIA's Annual Reports
An excerpt from Access Reports, a FOIA trade journal (November 2016)

A Most Essential Principle: Use and Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, 1975-2014
Unpublished dissertation (2016)

Criminal Libel in the Land of the First Amendment
A special report for the International Press Institute (co-author Dr. Tony Fargo)

CLIPS

MISCELLANeA

CONTACT

ajaywagner@gmail.com

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