communigator

UF grad part of new digital journalism team at CBS News

M iles Doran, TEL 2010 has done more than just hit the ground running since leaving the College of Journalism and Communications for CBS News just over a year ago.

He has been to more than 20 states and traveled close to 100,000 miles reporting on some of the largest stories.

“The first story I was sent out on happened to be one of the biggest stories of the year,” said Doran, on his assignment to cover the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “I was still in the process of training.”

Doran had packed just three days of clothing, planning to shoot a story with CBS’ Steve Hartman in Destin. As soon as Doran landed, he checked his e-mail and was told to stay in the Gulf “indefinitely.”

“I think I learned more in the first two weeks covering the oil spill than I could have learned in months of training,” said Doran. “Nothing compares to being thrown into a situation and having to figure out how to get the material back to New York.”

“Nothing compares to being thrown into a situation and having to figure out how to get the material back to New York.”

Doran’s title at CBS News is digital journalist and he’s part of a relatively new unit the network created just a year before he arrived at the corner of 57th Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan.

As a digital journalist, Doran can be working on a number of stories for a variety of platforms. His content is often seen on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.
“I don’t think we are reinventing journalism here,” said Doran on his role at the network. “It’s just the way of getting the information and transmitting it from point A to B that is changing.”

Doran, who was the 2009-10 Hearst Journalism Awards’ Television Broadcast News winner, started producing his own news packages in high school while interning at the local ABC affiliate in Tampa. His first piece on discrepancies with school start times aired on the station’s Sunday morning public affairs show.

That was the start to a budding career that already has included work at WUFT-TV, WRUF, WTSP-TV in St. Petersburg, the ABC News On Campus at UF and two internships with CBS News in New York.

As graduation approached, Doran had a difficult choice to make – be on camera and take a job as a local reporter or stay behind the camera and work for CBS News.

“That was a pretty big crossroad for me,” said Doran. “I chose the latter and so far so good.”

As the industry changes rapidly, and the definition of “new journalism” is continually altered, Doran is challenged with staying on top with new technologies.
For example, just this summer in Joplin, Mo. after a devastating tornado destroyed the town, Doran was faced with no cell phone service and a team of journalists needing to communicate. Using a portable satellite, Doran and the rest of the CBS team were able to communicate with headquarters back in New York and transmit their material back on deadline.

“Especially in this setting at CBS News, you get a great appreciation of what it takes to tell a good story,” said Doran. “The journalism values haven’t changed and I think that is important.”

From oil spills to tornados to drug smuggling in Puerto Rico, Doran continues to check off the cities he has worked on a map posted on the wall of his Upper West Side studio in Manhattan.

“I often don’t know what state I’m going to wake up in or fall asleep in,” said Doran. “The job is really flexible and that’s what I like about it.”

—Steven Johnson