Cronkite professor named to Defense Information School Hall of Fame


Stephen Doig, the Knight Chair in Journalism in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, was recently selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Defense Information School (DINFOS) Hall of Fame in Fort Meade, Md.

The school will recognize Doig along with six other alumni at its induction ceremony on March 14. The program will recognize DINFOS graduates for their significant contributions to the nation.

For Doig, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, the award is much more than a symbolic gesture.

“I’m pleased because I really owe my career to the service,” Doig said. “My first few years of college were spotty and I was sort of adrift. The Army gave me strong direction and ultimately my career.”

Doig said he was recruited to play football at Dartmouth College when a leg injury ended his sports days. He said after the injury he lost his identity as a jock and was rudderless in college. He finally dropped out of Dartmouth and promptly was drafted by the United States Army in 1970. After a 10-week course at DINFOS, Doig served as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star. After Vietnam, he served as an instructor at DINFOS for 18 months before returning to Dartmouth to graduate.

Doig’s distinguished military service carried over into his civilian life. He joined the Arizona State University faculty in 1996 after a 23-year career as a newspaper journalist, including 19 years at the Miami Herald. There, he served as a research editor, pollster, science editor, columnist, federal courts reporter, state capital bureau chief, education reporter and aviation writer. In 1993 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a newspaper series called “What Went Wrong” – a study of the damage patterns from Hurricane Andrew that exposed how weakened building codes and poor construction patterns contributed to the extent of the disaster.

He currently teaches graduate courses in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication professional master’s program, including the print reporting portion of the Journalism Skills (MCO 502) bootcamp as well as Media Research Methods (MCO 510). Doig also actively consults with print and broadcast news media outlets around the world on computer-assisted reporting problems.

In addition to Doig, the 2012 DINFOS honorees will include Walter Mondale, former vice president, senator and ambassador; Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune columnist, author and Pulitzer Prize winner; LouAnne Johnson, author; Jim Bryant, photographer and author; John Camp, best-selling author; John Camp, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner; and Les Payne, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner and a National Association of Black Journalists founder.