Dr Michael Daubs

BA (Indiana University), MSc (Indiana University), PhD (The University of Western Ontario)
Senior Lecturer

Contact

Office: 3N8, 3rd floor, Arts (Burns) Building
Tel: +64 3 556 6489
Email michael.daubs@otago.ac.nz

Research interests

• Mobile and ubiquitous media
• Media and activism
• Media and extremism
• Media policy
• Political economy of media

Michael’s research examines the political, social, and economic potential of information communication technologies (ICTs) and social media while also interrogating common claims and assumptions about these platforms. His project address topics such as mobile media and apps, the spread extremist ideology, and the networking of white extremism. He is also interested in disinformation and 'fake news', media and activist movements, digital labour, visual culture and media aesthetics, and the political economy of media. The international relevance of his research has led to conference presentations in North America, Europe, and Oceania, invited lectures to the New Zealand Institute for International Affairs, the National Library of New Zealand, and the Speaker’s Science Forum at the New Zealand Parliament. He has also made appearances on RNZ, TVNZ, and in Newsroom, The Spinoff, and the New Zealand Herald.

Background

After earning a BA in Telecommunications, Michael worked as a Web, database, and multimedia developer. He later returned to university to earn a MSc in Informatics (Media Arts and Sciences), followed by a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada, where he also worked as an adjunct Lecturer and, later, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies.

He accepted a role as Lecturer in the Media Studies (now Media and Communication) programme at Victoria University of Wellington in 2013. He worked there for over nine years, earning a promotion to Senior Lecturer, before applying his specialist knowledge as a Senior Policy Advisor at InternetNZ and as a Senior Policy Analyst for the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. He began his current role as a Senior Lecturer in the Media, Film and Communication programme at the University of Otago in 2025.

Teaching

• MFCO313: Culture, Politics and Media

Supervisions

PhD

• Yiwen Xu (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Gender, Identity and Media Practice in Contemporary China”– co-supervision with Associate Professor Stephen Epstein and Dr Catherine Churchman (in progress)
• Ehsan Hazaveh (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Collaborative Creative Artistic Photography: Storytelling with Resettled Refugees” – co-supervision with Associate Professor Thierry Jutel and Dr Paul Wolfram (completed June 2022)
• Fairooz Samy (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Normalizing Netflix: Televisual Norms in the Internet Age” – co-supervision with Associate Professor Trisha Dunleavy (completed September 2021)
• Claire Fitzpatrick (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Humanity’s Gone Viral: Social Media’s Influence on the Precariousness of Human Life – co-supervision with Dr Kate Schick (completed July 2021)
• Alex Beattie (at Victoria University of Wellington), “The Manufacture of Disconnection” – primary supervisor with Dr Cherie Lacey and Dr Angi Buettner (completed October 2020)
• Bo Wang (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Social Media Fan Culture with Chinese Characteristics: Participatory Engagement in the Web 2.0 Era” – co-supervision with Dr Joost de Bruin and Associate Professor Stephen Epstein (completed November 2019)

MA

• Jarrod Varty (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Online Radicalisation in New Zealand” – co-supervision with Dr Sara Salman, (completed March 2024)
• Tyla Stevenson (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Digital Fashion: Reconstructing Fashion’s Relationship with Time and Materiality – co-supervision with Heli Salomaa (completed June 2022)
• Whitley Mallory (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Weeding Out Cannabis Representations: Politics, Practice, and Informing the 2020 Referendum Debate” – co-supervision with Dr Angi Buettner (completed June 2022)
• Dani Pickering (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Between attention and mobilisation: proletariat political activation in a mediated Aotearoa/New Zealand” – co-supervision with Dr Kathleen Kuehn (completed January 2020)
• Shahirah Wan Hassan (at Victoria University of Wellington), “The Role of New Media and Post-Orientalism in Palestinian Resistance” – co-supervision with Associate Professor Jo Smith, (completed July 2016)
• Ariane Galope (at Victoria University of Wellington), “A Community of Liars: Rebranding ABC Family as a Teen Network” – co-supervision with Associate Professor Trisha Dunleavy (completed October 2015)
• Benjamin Longhurst (at Victoria University of Wellington), “Confessions of the Flesh: the Facebook Confessional” – co-supervision with Dr Anita Brady (completed April 2014)