Tai Neilson is a Senior Lecturer in Media and the Major Coordinator for Journalism and Nonfiction Writing at Macquarie University. He is the author of Journalism and Digital Labor: Experiences of Online News Production and co-edited Research Methods for the Digital Humanities.

Dr Neilson’s areas of expertise include journalism, the political economy of digital media, and critical cultural theory. His current research investigates journalists’ work practices, professional ideologies, and the power relations that impact their work. This includes critical approaches to the digital platforms, data collection, and new modes of capital accumulation that are shaping media work. He is interested in pressing questions about our online lives, work, and our environment. He has published work on journalism and digital media in Journalism and Media, Digital Journalism, Media International Australia, Journalism, Triple-C, Fast Capitalism, and Global Media Journal.

Dr Neilson teaches classes on media, technology, and news production. His teaching was featured on the ABC television series The Assembly. He co-developed and taught Australia's first autism-friendly journalism course. As the inaugural winner of the Faculty of Arts teaching award for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, he continues to advocate for inclusive tertiary education.

Dr Neilson earned his PhD in cultural studies from George Mason University in Virginia and has an MA in sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York, and a BA (honours) in sociology and media studies from Victoria University of Wellington.

Dr Neilson is interested in supervising higher degree research in the areas of journalism, digital media, political economy, and critical theory.

Supervision (completed)

KB Heylen (MRes), Switching off the news: What a discourse analysis of digital platforms’ response to Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code reveals about ideology and power (2022).

Kara Ortiga (MRes), #DefendPressFreedom: Journalists’ use of Instagram in news reporting under Duterte’s populist administration in the Philippines (2021).

Supervision (in progress)

KB Heylen (PhD), Buy Now, Pay Later: A Critical Platform Analysis of Afterpay (submitted 22/09/2025).

Petra Petruccio (PhD), Algorithmic News Curation in Social Media – The dependency of Local/Regional Newspapers on Platforms and their Consequences. Co-supervised with Prof. Dr. Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw (Universität Hamburg) and Christian Stöcker HAW Hamburg.

Kara Ortiga (PhD), Political Influencers and their Audiences: User Engagement Within Pro-Marcos Online Ecosystems.