{"id":2189,"date":"2015-12-26T17:12:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T01:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/newsroom15\/?p=905"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:37:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:37:17","slug":"drone-journalism-an-exercise-in-patience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2015\/12\/26\/drone-journalism-an-exercise-in-patience\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone journalism: an exercise in patience"},"content":{"rendered":"

News organizations hoping to use unmanned aerial vehicles in their reporting\u00a0will have to wait for more accommodating\u00a0regulations or travel abroad, concluded panelists at a drone journalism session Saturday\u00a0morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am here to crush your dreams,\u201d University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism professor Matt Waite said. The other panelists \u201cwill restore them somewhat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For\u00a0some reporters, drones are a way to get a\u00a0different perspective by visiting places they couldn\u2019t go otherwise. They provide \u00a0new options for\u00a0documenting natural disasters, sporting events, or movement of animals.<\/p>\n

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for\u00a0the laws of the sky. In recent\u00a0years, more hobbyists have been purchasing and flying drones for fun, raising safety and privacy questions.<\/p>\n

Waite published the first story of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Drone Journalism Lab in 2012, drawing the attention of about 30 media outlets. Eight months later, the FAA wrote a letter telling them to stop, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists have been dealt a bad hand,\u201d Waite said. \u201cOur default position is to publish and draw attention. The FAA is looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he called the FAA, he was told\u00a0to get a government permit since he was with a state university. While in the process, the FAA changed the rules and said that universities are no longer government agencies and thus ineligible for a government license.\u00a0The lab needed someone to get a commercial pilot license to operate a drone, and Waite volunteered.<\/p>\n

\"Nathalie<\/a>
Phantom drone outfitted with a camera. (Photo: Nathalie Dortonne)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two weeks ago, he received a piece of paper giving him the ability to fly lightweight aircrafts.\u00a0\u201cIt is so much fun flying an airplane,\u201d he said. \u201cI am so bored driving my car now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning how to fly an airplane didn\u2019t really help him fly a drone, he said. But it did help him appreciate how difficult it can be\u00a0to see other planes, much less a small object such as a bird or drone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see it when it\u2019s hitting the side of your airplane,\u201d he told attendees.<\/p>\n

The process of getting his license cost him about $7,000, he said. Other licenses for flying additional aircraft would have been more expensive.<\/p>\n

Pilots need to hold a commercial license for between 18 months and two\u00a0years before they can fly drones. Then, they can apply for regular airplane exemptions and have them modified. The FAA has granted 1,658 such exemptions\u00a0as of Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

The exemptions request removal of some requirements of flying a plane, such as keeping the airworthiness certificate next to the pilot in the cockpit (there is no cockpit in a UAV). After several months, the FAA responds to\u00a0a review and gives restrictions.<\/p>\n

Current FAA restrictions\u00a0say drones\u00a0can\u2019t go more than\u00a0500 feet above ground and have to fly in open territory. If flying in restricted airspace \u2013 an airport \u2013 then a news organization\u00a0would need to call the flight tower 24 hours in advance. This makes covering breaking news hard.<\/p>\n

The rules get murkier when\u00a0trying to use somebody else’s drone footage, Waite\u00a0explained. Hobbyists with drones don\u2019t need a pilot’s license, and any footage they capture in that capacity is fine to sell. But the minute hobbyists set out to capture footage with the intention of selling it,\u00a0they can get in trouble.<\/p>\n

In February, the FAA proposed a new set of rules that would do away with the pilot’s license requirement. But most don\u2019t expect this to be finalized\u00a0until late 2016 or the summer of 2017, Waite said.<\/p>\n

Another panelist, Ben Kreimer, has gotten\u00a0around UAV restrictions\u00a0by piloting drones in places like India and Africa, where some countries don\u2019t yet have restrictions.\u00a0He has worked on conservation or wildlife work for several news and PR outlets, using drones to capture football matches or follow elephants for a story on poaching.<\/p>\n

With a couple of GoPro cameras, he can capture 360-degree video or create 3D models of areas for virtual reality storytelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing 3D works really adds a new dimension \u2013 literarily \u2013 to a story because it lets you add a dimension of space to a story,\u201d said Kreimer, who is currently a fellow at BuzzFeed.<\/p>\n

Instead of spending about $15,000 for a GoPro Odyssey \u2013 16\u00a0cameras weighing 15 pounds in total \u2013 he gets a portable rig for $1,520: two GoPros, an off-the-shelf Phantom drone and a camera mount.<\/p>\n

Ryo Yamaguchi, an editor at Yahoo! Japan \u2013\u00a0a content aggregator\u2013 will be joining BuzzFeed Japan\u2019s social media team soon. His drone hit a car 10\u00a0days ago, he said, but he plans to buy another one for journalistic use.<\/p>\n

Alison Broddle, an executive producer of digital content for CBC British Columbia, has a staff of about 15. CBC’s journalists do not operate UAVs themselves, but recently, they collaborated with outside pilots to use drone footage of a great whale. Viewer-wise, \u201cthat did unbelievably well,\u201d she said. \u201cParticularly on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some countries, such as Kenya, have banned drone journalism. Occasionally, Kreimer has asked for exceptions from local governments and gotten them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that when the FAA releases their regulations for the U.S., other countries will follow suit,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably because there\u2019s so much money to be made from the drone industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kreimer started about two months ago as the first fellow in Buzzfeed\u2019s New Open Lab Fellowship \u2013 a program to work on new hardware and technology. He\u2019s going to be working a lot more with drones. He\u2019s not sure where yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News organizations hoping to use unmanned aerial vehicles in their reporting\u00a0will have to wait for more accommodating\u00a0regulations or travel abroad, concluded panelists at a drone journalism session Saturday\u00a0morning. \u201cI am…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10484,"featured_media":2113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[668],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"coauthors":[1124],"class_list":{"0":"post-2189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-video","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-industry","8":"tag-ona15","9":"post_format-post-format-video"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/09\/drone1-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5Q1c-zj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3602,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/3602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}