Distinguished Lecturer of Ethics and Former Director
Stephen J. A. Ward is an internationally recognized media ethicist whose writings and projects have influenced the development of the field in theory and practice. He is an educator, consultant, keynote speaker and award-winning author, having written nine books on journalism and media ethics. Ward has extensive experience in media both academically and professionally.
He is former director of the UBC Graduate School of Journalism. He is founding Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics, School of Journalism and Communication, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Courtesy Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon.
Academically, he helped to create a school of journalism, founded a center for journalism ethics, and directed a center for multi-media journalism and communication. He has been a tenured professor at three major universities in Canada and the United States, and has 15 years of teaching at the graduate and undergraduate level.
Prof. Ward is founding chair of the Ethics Committee of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and a co-author of the CAJ’s two codes of ethics. He has worked as a consultant for journalism associations from the United States to Guatemala and Vietnam.
Prof. Ward was a reporter, war correspondent, and newsroom manager for 14 years. He covered conflicts in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Northern Ireland. He then became the British Columbia bureau chief for The Canadian Press news agency in Vancouver.
His current research is on the future of media ethics in a global interactive world, and the ethics of engaged journalism.
He is the author of the award-winning books, The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond and Radical Media Ethics. His latest books, Ethical Journalism in a Populist Age and Disrupting Journalism Ethics, appeared in 2018.
Prof. Ward’s articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as Journalism Studies, Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies; Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics; and the Journal of Media Ethics. He serves on many editorial and advisory boards for ethics organizations and for journals on media ethics and science. He has delivered numerous conference keynotes from Lisbon to Sydney, Australia.
Prof. Ward has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, a Masters’ degree from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor’s degree from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B. In 2016, St. Thomas University presented Prof. Ward with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
