Ryan J. Thomas

Ryan J. Thomas is the editor of the Journal of Media Ethics and an Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Production and Director of Graduate Studies in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. His teaching and research center on issues pertaining to journalism and democracy, journalism ethics, and the sociology of news production. Ryan earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington State University before spending ten years on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he earned tenure. He returned to WSU as an Associate Professor in 2022 and was appointed Director of Graduate Studies in 2023.

Ryan’s research program addresses the intersection of journalism ethics and the sociology of news, focusing on journalism amid processes of change. This research program examines the forces shaping journalism, how journalists make sense of them, and how these changes affect journalism’s institutional obligations and role in public life. A related stream of research asks critical questions of journalism studies as a field and its tendency to hastily embrace technological change and treat these changes as fundamental, inexorable, and unprecedented. Thomas’s research has been published in such peer-reviewed journals as Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, the Journal of Media Ethics, and New Media & Society.

He is a first-generation college student from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and enjoys running, discovering new music, and spending time with his wife and two rescue dogs Rose and Webster.