After working for the Associated Press and the Raleigh Times, he earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University with a dissertation on eye contact as a communication channel.
His six books reflect the breadth of his interests and contributions: Tankard also served as the editor of Journalism Monographs from 1988 to 1994.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the national association of journalism and mass communication scholars and media professionals to which Tankard devoted much of his professional life, posthumously honored him as the 2006 recipient of the Eleanor Blum Distinguished Service to Research Award.
[2] This award, created in 1980 to recognize a person who has devoted a substantial part of his or her career to promoting research in mass communication, is so selective that it has only been given ten times during the past 25 years.
The winner of the inaugural (2007) Tankard Book Award was The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom, by Patrick S. Washburn and published by Northwestern University Press.