DR. STEPHEN WARD is the James E. Burgess Professor of Journalism Ethics, and endowed chair in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the school. Prof. Ward took up the positions of chair and director in August, 2008. Previously, he was director of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

He is the author of the The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond. The book, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, won the 2005–2006 Harold Adams Innis Prize from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences for the best English-language scholarly book in the social sciences.  Also, he is co-editor of Media Ethics Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective, published by Heinemann Publications of South Africa in June 2008.

Prof. Ward has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. His research interests include history of journalism ethics, ethical theory, global media ethics, and science journalism. Prof. Ward is founder of the science journalism initiative at the UBC School of Journalism. He is principal investigator of an international study into the public communication of controversial science. The study aims to improve science journalism by exploring new models of science communication.

Prof. Ward is an associate editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics. His articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as Journalism Studies, Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics and the Journal of Mass Media Ethics.  He serves on seven editorial and advisory boards for ethics organizations and for journals on media ethics and science.

For 14 years, Prof. Ward worked as a journalist. He was a Canadian political reporter before becoming foreign reporter, war correspondent, and newsroom manager. During this period, he covered conflicts in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Northern Ireland. Prof. Ward was the British Columbia bureau chief for The Canadian Press news agency in Vancouver.

He is a media ethics columnist for Media Magazine and is the founding chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the Canadian Association of Journalists. Prof. Ward is director of two web sites: this one, and www.sciencejournalism.net, on science journalism.  He also writes Ward’s Words, an ethics column on for www.j-source.ca — Canada’s main portal for the discussion of journalism issues.

Prof. Ward’s curriculum vitae(pdf) E-mail Stephen Ward: sjward2@wisc.edu

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