Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery

By Jim Motavalli
$26.95 Da Capo Press

Reviewed by Bill Kovarik

Hermits and wild men of every shape and motivation have long been fixtures of world folklore. From John the Baptist to TV's Bear Grylls, survival in the wilderness has been a hallmark of integrity and, sometimes, intelligence.

  By ROGER ARCHIBALD

Protecting the cloud forest ecosystem of a nearly-extinct bird with a magnificent plumage.

 By AMY GAHRAN

 Media aren't what-or where- they used to be, especially when it comes to news.

As an example, look at May 12, 2008, when in the wee hours of the morning (by U.S. reckoning) users of the popular social media service Twitter broke the news of a major earthquake centered in Chengdu, China, three minutes before the U.S. Geological Survey earthquake reporting site posted its announcement.

By BUD WARD

"Print reporter."
For years – make that decades – it was a term I applied to myself with honor.
I figured I'd take it to the grave with me, there being no finer epitaph.

Now, dem's fightin' words. Insulting, disparaging, or, at the very least, anachronistic.

 By TIM WHEELER

No story dominates environmental news coverage these days like climate change. To be sure, there still are pressing environmental issues that have little or nothing to do with climate, such as human exposure to toxic chemicals. Butclimate affects so much of the natural and human world that it encompasses—or at least connects with— many of the traditional environmental stories reporters have covered for years, including fisheries, energy, endangered species and pollution, to name just a handful.

By ROBERT BRULLE with MIRANDA SPENCER

One core tenet of environmental journalism is the inclusion and explanation of complex physical and natural scientific facts into coverage of environmental issues, and it is expected that reporters invest a considerable effort into understanding the science behind these topics. The journals Scienceand Natureare virtually required background reading, and physical and natural scientists typically serve as the sources for interviews.

By BILL KOVARIK AND KEN WARD

The 18th annual SEJ conference in Roanoke, Va., Oct. 15- 19, hosted by Virginia Tech, is shaping up to be one of the most memorable and practical yet.

• Memorable, because of the extraordinary speakers, the beautiful location, and the easy access to fun networking events.

• Practical, for you as a journalist, because of the wide variety of craft sessions in fully equipped computer labs focused on helping you survive and thrive in a changing news business.

 Here are some of the details:

By BILL DAWSON

 "Doing more with less."

The phrase is now often lampooned as a preposterous cliché, but newspaper executives must have thought at first that it was an artful way to spin the bad news of escalating staff cuts.

Publisher Joe Pepe of The Commercial Appeal, for example, used the words when he announced in late 2005 that the Memphis newspaper would slash its workforce of 774 by 170 employees.