Taking Out The Trash

Drones in the west

The head of news for the BBC in Bristol, Neil Bennett, came to UWE to talk to MA journalism students about his work.

And while there talked about the use by BBC Points West of a drone to gather aerial images - and the fact this is likely to get more common among media companies.

The drone his team used was hired and operated by Clive Bailey who runs Bailey Balloons as he has a licence to fly them over built-up areas.

Apologies for the sound quality (you might need headphones to hear Neil's talk). The drone stuff really kicks in about two minutes in.

 

 

"In ten years we'll wonder why we were so worked up."

Prf Matt Waite heads up the University of Nebraska's Drone Journalism Lab which has received $50,000 from the Knight Foundation to research the ethics and uses of UAVs by the media.

You can see the latest experiments from his lab in the clip below. As opposed to Lewis Whyld's UAV, which covered flooded areas in the UK (outlined in my previous post), Waite's team has been looking at droughts in America. Below the clip Prof Waite explains to me in detail how he sees the media using UAVs in the years to come.

 

Q: What do you hope/plan to have produced for the Knight Foundation come the end of your grant?

A: Several things. First, we want to build, fly and test some UAVs. Just getting some experience and writing about it openly will be very beneficial for journalists trying to evaluate this idea. Right now, I think we've all seen too many movies and have some wild eyed ideas of what's possible. Putting some reality into the discussion will be step one. Second, we're going to write about ethical issues involved, both from a historical perspective and from an in-the-field experience perspective. We think that by using them, we'll think of new questions to ask. Third, we hope to have a legal, ethical and safety framework for journalists who want to use UAVs to do journalism. We want to give journalists tools to make decisions about when and how - and if at all - to use UAVs.

Q: Apart from American news organisations, where else do you see drone journalism advancing quickest? It seems that in some cases NGOs/activists are taking up the possibilities quicker than news outlets.

A: I fully expect others to take it up faster than newsrooms do. News organizations, if I'm being nice, tend to be rather deliberative with these kinds of things. There are laws and rules in place that give business managers and corporate legal counsels pause when it comes to using UAVs — at least currently — so I think activists with less concern about the feelings of authorities will move much quicker than news organizations. But I think you're going the right direction with NGOs. I'd throw in democracy activists and rebel movements too. If you're a Syrian rebel, and you need the world to sympathize with your cause, getting pictures and video and news out of there is important. It's a matter of time before an NGO uses a UAV to photograph human rights abuses and changes the world's opinion about a place.

Q: Would it be accurate to say that drone journalism is a situation where legal (aviation and privacy) codes are struggling to keep pace with corporate/individual innovation?

A: There's no doubt that's the situation. Think about it. Right now, you can go to any mall and buy a quad-copter with a high definition camera mounted on the front of it that only requires an iPhone or Android phone to fly, all for $350. That video can be recorded right on the device and uploaded to the internet in minutes. There are laws that could be brought to bear, but those laws never considered someone with a flying toy capable of taking broadcast quality video.

Q: Setting aside aviation rules, what is the biggest barrier to a freelance photographer/broadcaster aiming to use a drone today?

A: Cost and complexity would be easy answers, but I think the key one people aren't thinking about because we don't have a lot of experience with it is safety. I think people have this idea — based on what we see of military drones in war zones flying for long periods of time seemingly without error — that these things are reliable and safe. They're getting more reliable and they're getting safer, but there's still a substantial risk of a crash every time they take off. If you're a freelance photojournalist, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you don't have the insurance needed when your photo drone loses an engine and crashes on the head of a protester. A significant amount of research needs to be done on when, where and how these things can be used safely. 

Q: In ten years time how would you expect to see drone journalism being used?

A: In 10 years, I think drones for journalism will be boring. I think they'll be like smartphones. They're another tool in the kit. Of course we use UAVs to cover a wildfire. Why wouldn't we? We've been doing it for years. That kind of thinking. I'm really excited about drones for journalism, I think they'll be a very useful tool for a lot of journalists in the very near future, but I think they're just another tool. Drones will not be writing stories. Drones will not find the humanity in a story. Drones will be a tool for journalists to do what they do best: journalism. And that's all that they are. In 10 years, we'll look back at all this fuss about drones and wonder why we were so worked up.

Spy in the sky

The next few years are likely to see a new tool added the journalist's armoury - unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Drone journalism already has its own academic department and on Monday a workshop takes place in Oxford organised by the Reuter's Institute for the Study of Journalism. In the next edition of the NUJ magazine The Journalist I'll be looking in detail on how the media plans to use UAVs for news gathering.

For the article I interviewed Lewis Whyld, a photographer with the Press Association, who has built his own UAV. He used it this year to take pictures of flooding. In the full interview below Lewis explains more about how he plans to use his flying camera.

Summer flooding filmed with my UAV from Lewis Whyld on Vimeo

“I've been developing the systems in private for years because I realised the potential for news-gathering and journalism, but people generally thought it was a crazy idea so I kept it quiet.

“I've built some from scratch and some modified from existing airframes. It has taken a few years of experimenting, designing and flying to get a good understanding of which works best for the wide variety of conditions you might find on a story.

“Beyond the airframe you need to design or find a powertrain that will give you the necessary lift. Beyond the powertrain are the electronics, sensors, gyro stabilisers and satellite connections that give you altitude, groundspeed, airspeed, navigational tools, flight stabilisation and autopilot/waypoint functions.

“You will need a radio link from the ground to the UAV for control, which along with the flight time helps determine your range. I also add a live video-link to the ground so I can fly from the point of view of the UAV. To do this you will have to build your own antennas for the frequencies you have selected.

“I record the 'live' view on the ground using a groundstation that I built from scratch that can display all of the in-flight data received from the UAV, including battery voltages, RSSI (signal strength indicator) and GPS position together with the live video feed and altitude, speed etc.

“Placing the items in the UAV requires thought as the centre of gravity (COG) needs to be precise. Different centres result in different flying characteristics, and thus it may be necessary to change the COG depending on the conditions of the story you are covering.

“Using a UAV to film the floods was more of an experiment. It is rare to see UAV footage in difficult weather conditions. As a result I can transfer the techniques to my newer, more stable airframes.

“The need in this country is not as great as it is elsewhere - both in terms of commercial and journalistic uses. My UAVs are primarily designed for use in other countries. I plan on invading the privacy of dictators, despots and human rights abusers who massacre civilians with impunity. Every generation of journalists has a responsibility to use the tools available to them in order to discover and report the truth.

“My UAVs and for use in places where people are being shot in their back-gardens rather than sunbathing. It's as simple as that.”