Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Tom Hallaq / Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones as they are commonly known, could allow
journalists to report the news like never before. A drone is a tool with great potential, yet fraught
with controversy as the result of its military past. In 2012, the Unmanned Aerial System had
become domesticated and could have become the hottest new technology since the cell phone.
The first unmanned systems came to service gathering intelligence and in the delivery of lethal
and non-lethal payloads for the military. With the domestication of UAS technologies, not only
have numerous commercial uses been revealed for the UAS, the drone has made it to the hands
of the general public, raising concerns of how this technology is to be used. At the time of this
thesis, in the United States, the only legal use of UAS was by hobbyists. Also, at the time of this
thesis, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had not provided comprehensive regulations
or guidelines regarding the commercial use of UAS platforms (FAA, 2015).
Of the many uses purposed for UAS platforms, one use of interest for journalists is the
increased potential for newsgathering and surveillance. With UAS/drone technologies becoming
increasingly more available, concerns are raised about safety, privacy, context, and the integrity
of news source or (conflict of interest).
The researcher interviewed working journalists from four major networks with stations
located in states mandated as test sites by the FAA. The journalists were asked about their
concerns pertaining to the ethical uses of drone for journalistic newsgathering. The interviews
reveled that with proper training, regulations, and common sense the concerns about safety,
privacy, context, and conflict of interest could be moderated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/35372 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Homburg, Nick Jr. |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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