Rate My Professor Ken Ward

Dr. Ken J. Ward is an Associate Professor of Communication at Pittsburg State University, where he joined the Department of Communication in Fall 2021. He earned his Ph.D. in Journalism from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in 2018, with a dissertation titled “America’s Last Newspaper War: One Hundred and Sixteen Years of Competition between the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News,” later published as the book Last Paper Standing: A Century of Competition between the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News (University Press of Colorado, 2023). He holds an M.A. in Communication from Wichita State University (2014), with a thesis on editorial representations in the Cripple Creek Mining District press, and a B.A. in Communication Arts from Bethel College, Kansas (2011). Prior to academia, Ward worked as a reporter for the McPherson Sentinel and a sports radio producer for 1410 KGSO in Wichita. His research specializes in the journalism history of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, with peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Journalism History, Journal of Media Law and Ethics, and Journal of Media Ethics. Notable articles include “‘The Vilest Man in the Newspaper Business’: F. G. Bonfils’s Libel Case against the Rocky Mountain News” (Journalism History, 2019) and “Social Networks, the 2016 US Presidential Election, and Kantian Ethics” (Journal of Media Ethics, 2018). He has contributed book chapters, such as in Journalism’s Ethical Progression (2019), and hosted numerous episodes of the Journalism History podcast, including on topics like the Hutchins Commission and enforcement journalism.

Ward’s scholarship has earned the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Warren Price Award, the American Journalism Historians Association’s Robert Lance Memorial Award, and AJHA’s President’s Award for service (2019). His 2023 book received the AEJMC History Division Book Award. He serves on AJHA’s Board of Directors and chairs AEJMC History Division’s teaching committee. At Pittsburg State University, he teaches journalism, media production, history, and law courses, contributes to the Community Journalism Initiative, publishes the Pittsburg Headlamp featuring student work, and was recognized as a 2025 Center for Community News Champion. He also serves on the Faculty Senate Constitution Committee and Joint University Student Publications Board. His Journalism History podcast series reached 100,000 interactions in 2023.