Jour 307 Blog #4: Journalism Drones

Photo by Zach Garcia
Was taken from the Missouri Drone Journalism Program website

The University of Missouri is now having journalism students test out the use of drones, courtesy of one of their professors, Bill Allen.

Allen hopes that the drones will assist in journalists process of performing watchdog duties and to help report the news.

The idea for the drones is to cover possible environmental stories, natural disasters, checking over crime scenes and other stories that would be unsafe for anyone to possibly get near.

One of the drones weighing only a few pounds and could cost around $500-$1000 depending on the type of camera that's attached to it.

This is an intriguing new possible tool to me, although I don't know if using them to go over blocked off crime scenes would be the best use of it.

I know there was a big philosophy of "if it bleeds, it leads." I don't agree with that statement and that is why I personally will change the channel or skip over a news page with a story that goes along that route.

Anyways back to the point of using drones as an effective journalism tool. I would like to see the University of Arizona maybe try and employ the class into its program.

It may not be feasible as it would be hard enough to fit it into the class selection, but it would also be hard to find someone to teach the class.

Another blocker against these drones is that there are 33 states currently that are in the process of setting up laws to restrict the use of this tool, according to NBC news.

I would like to see the full extent of potential for these drones in a journalistic manner and would hope that maybe I might get a chance to experiment with it before I graduate, but for that to happen I may just have to try and make one myself. (Maybe a project for this summer, who knows?)

Feel free to post your comments and opinions on the possibility of this new journalism tool.

To see the article from NYDailyNews.com click here.

To see the Missouri Drone Journalism Program page click here.

Thanks and play well,
                                   MYLO