Drone Journalism Can't Fully Take Flight Until Regulators Act
What was once experimental is now becoming more common — journalists and photographers are increasingly putting small commercial drones in the air to shoot photo and video. But when they do, they're on shaky legal ground. Federal regulators currently prohibit drone use for commercial purposes — including reporting — as they work to write longer term guidelines on who and where small drones can fly.
Just last week, when a tornado ripped through Arkansas, it carved a path of damage so wide, that the best way to see its destruction was from the air. KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., aired several minutes of damage video. It was recorded by a photographer from his drone, which has a built-in video camera that shot from about 150 feet in the air.
"You can provide people in the affected area and outside of it a much greater perspective on just the scope and scale of the disaster," says Matt Waite, who started and leads the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. When he opened it in 2012, it was the first drone journalism lab in the world.
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