Skip to main content
Address:

Teaching and research interests: journalism, media history, media law, new media tech, and environmental history. His research is located at the intersection of history, communications and the environment.

William Kovarik worked at The Associated Press, the Baltimore Sun, the Charleston SC Post-Courier, and Time-Life Books and with columnist Jack Anderson. He has also worked as a stringer with the New York Times, Time Magazine and a number of science and environmental publications.  

He studied history of media, technology and environment at the University of South Carolina, earning an M.A. in 1983, and the University of Maryland, earning a Ph.D. in 1993.  His dissertation involved research into the media coverage of a preventable environmental disaster — the development of Ethyl leaded gasoline and alternative anti-knock additives. Kovarik has also served as an academic representative on the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists and as editor of Appalachian Voice.

Kovarik’s books (so far) include “The Forbidden Fuel” (1982, republished 2010), The Ethyl Controversy (1993); “Mass Media and Environmental Conflict” (1996, with Mark Neuzil, Sage); “Web Design for the Mass Media” (2001, Pearson) and “Revolutions in Communication” (2011, 2016, Bloomsbury).

In addition to serving full time at Radford since 1990, Kovarik has been a visiting professor at Unity College, the University of Maryland, the University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Ljubljana. 

Publications and Research

Kovarik, W. J. (2011). Revolutions in Communication (pp. 384). New York, NY: Bloomsbury. www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Kovarik, W. J. (2015). Revolutions in Communication (2nd edition) (Second ed., pp. 464). New York NY: Bloomsbury. www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Book Chapters

Kovarik, W. J. (2013). Biofuels in history. In Singh, B.P. (Ed.), Biofuel crops: production, physiology and genetics (pp. 544). Sao Paulo: Commonwealth Agricultural & Biosciences Institute (CABI). http://www.cabi.org/cabebooks/ebook/20133196033