Ken Ward
About Dr. Ken J. Ward
Dr. Ken J. Ward joined the PSU Department of Communication in Fall of 2021. His background is in journalism, and his research focuses on the journalism history of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Before earning his Ph.D. from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in 2018, Dr. Ward was a reporter for the McPherson Sentinel and a sports radio producer for 1410 KGSO in Wichita. His research has appeared in top academic journals including Journalism History, the Journal of Media Law and Ethics, and the Journal of Media Ethics.
Dr. Ward’s research has received accolades, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Warren Price Award and the American Journalism Historians Association’s Robert Lance Memorial Award. In 2019, he also received AJHA’s President’s Award for service to the organization. He is a member of AJHA’s Board of Directors and is chair of AEJMC History Division’s teaching committee. Dr. Ward teaches courses in journalism and production as well as media history and law.
Education
Ph.D., Journalism, Ohio University, 2018. Dissertation “America’s Last Newspaper War: One Hundred and Sixteen Years of Competition between the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.
M.A., Communication, Wichita State University, 2014. Thesis “Section and Silver: Editorial Representations of Political Regionalism and Bimetallism in the Cripple Creek Mining District Press, 1869–1904.
B.A., Communication Arts, Bethel College, Kansas, 2011.
Teaching Emphases
- Journalism
- Media History
- Media Law
- Media Production
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
- Ken J. Ward, “‘Nexus of Naturalists: Sharing Nature in the Columbus Dispatch Column of Edward Sinclair Thomas,” Ohio History 127, no. 2 (2020): 92–113.
- “‘The Vilest Man in the Newspaper Business’: F. G. Bonfils’s Libel Case against the Rocky Mountain News,” Journalism History 45, no. 3 (2019): 270–287.
- “Social Networks, the 2016 US Presidential Election, and Kantian Ethics: Applying the Categorical Imperative to Cambridge Analytica’s Behavioral Microtargeting,” Journal of Media Ethics 33, no. 3 (2018): 133–48.
- Kenneth Ward and Aimee Edmondson, “The Espionage Conviction of Kansas City Editor Jacob Frohwerk: ‘A Clear and Present Danger’ to the United States,” Journal of Media Law and Ethics 6, no. 1/2 (Summer/Fall 2017): 39–56.
- “Crafty Ads: Branding and Product Nesting in the Arts and Crafts Magazine The Craftsman,” Journal of Magazine and New Media Research 17, no. 2 (Winter 2017): 1–20.
Book Chapters and Other Publications
- Rob Wells, The Enforcers: How Little-Known Trade Reporters Exposed the Keating Five and Advanced Business Journalism. Book review. American Journalism 37, no. 3 (2020): 406–408.
- Ken J. Ward, “A ‘Failure to Take Itself Seriously’: The ASNE and the Bonfils Case in the 1920s and 1930s,” in Journalism’s Ethical Progression: A Twentieth-Century Journey, Gwyneth Mellinger and John Ferrè, eds. (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2019).
- Erika Pribanic-Smith, Erin Coyle, Jared Schroeder, and Ken Ward, “Historical Roundtable: ‘Legal and Historical Understanding of the First Amendment,’” Historiography in Mass Communication 5, no. 1 (2019): 31–44.
- Dan Bernstein, Justice in Plain Sight. Book review. American Journalism 36, no. 3 (2019): 408–409.
Podcast Episodes
- “Stephen Bates: The Hutchins Commission,” Journalism History (podcast), episode 82, June 21, 2021.
- “Matt Cecil: Hoover and the Fourth Estate,” Journalism History (podcast), episode 79, May 24, 2021.
- “Dale Cressman: Nixon’s War on Television,” Journalism History (podcast), episode 75, March 29, 2021.
- “Rob Wells: Enforcement Journalism and the Keating Five Scandal,” Journalism History (podcast), episode 70, January 18, 2021.
- “Carolina Velloso: A True Newspaperwoman,” Journalism History (podcast) episode 61, October 6, 2020.
- “Owen Johnson: Ernie Pyle, WWII and Telling It Like It Is,” Journalism History (podcast) episode 60, September 29, 2020.
- “Wendy Mellilo: The Problems with Polls,” Journalism History (podcast) episode 53, July 7, 2020.
- “William Huntzicker: News for the Masses,” Journalism History (podcast) episode 45, March 17, 2020.
- “Ken Ward: The ‘Vilest’ Newspaper Titan,” Journalism History (podcast) episode 32, September 24, 2019.
