Smart drones for journalism

Lars Nyre, Astrid Gynnild, Frode Guribye.

Dept. of Information Science and Media Studies.

University of Bergen, Norway.

Camera drones in education

Teaching students to make responsible

journalism with new technology

Unpacking the drone

Photo: Lars Nyre.

Vismedia is a research group at the University of

Bergen. We focus on responsible uses of visual

technologies in news media.

Vismedia – the mother project

Vismedia is is funded by the

Norwegian Research

Council from 2015 – 2019.

Drone flying at Vismedia conference

Photo: På Høyden.

Students at Vismedia conference

Photo: Zulfikar Fahmy.

Innovation pedagogics is about

teaching students to be creative

and daring in their approaches.

Freedom to explore within limits.

In our case students have the

responsibility for designing a

prototype for drone journalism.

Innovation pedagogics

Students are offered practical training in drone flying and

drone programming, and are split into three groups who

design technical prototypes.

Vismedia researchers guide the innovation process by

evaluating and discussing with the students in a series

of four workshops.

The course explores two aspects of responsibility;

avoiding danger and making journalism.

Course plan

Drones can be dangerous for the pilot as well as

bystanders. Difficult questions of liability could emerge,

putting the University as well as students at risk.

Strategy 1: Drone teachers follow all rules strictly, and

students can only fly if all the paperwork is in order.

Strategy 2: Drone teachers allow students to practice

privately, in order for them to improve flying skills.

Students are given more responsibility.

Avoiding danger

Indoor flying practice

Photo: Giedrius Statulevičius.

Outdoor flying practice

Photo: Lars Nyre.

Journalism is bound by ethical requirements and

expectations about accountability, relevance and

interest, and in this sense it is always responsible.

• - Journalism drone filming is not a surveillance

activity, but transparent, with an operation manual

and stated purpose.

• - Journalism has special privileges regarding access

to information, and should act accordingly when the

story requires it.

Making journalism

The drone is preprogrammed to conduct a series of

standard shorts that are needed for a news report.

The prototype can apply face recognition technology

to frame the shot during an interview, and the drone

can be set to operate inside a geo-fence.

Prototype 1: Toolkit for reporters

News reportage can be made with 360 degree drone

filming, both indoors and outdoors. This ”street-view”

perspective would be novel in relation to television news.

It would have a high level of immersiveness and

interactivity for the user.

Prototype 2: Immersive news

Drone film that includes real sound from the flight, using

microphones synchronized with GPS and time code.

Drone video footage can become more documentary if

sound is routinely included, and this would be a benefit for

journalism.

Prototype 3: Microphone drone

- The objective is for the students to anticipate and

systematically reflect on the implications of their

innovations.

- Possible learning outcomes:

- - Students make independent decisions about drone

flying and the risks involved.

- - Students think realistically about the potential of a

new technology and the effort involved in shaping it.

- - Students create genuinely novel and valuable

technologies for journalism.

Why RRI in media education?

Lars Nyre, Astrid Gynnild, Frode Guribye.

Dept. of Information Science and Media Studies.

University of Bergen, Norway.

Camera drones in education

Teaching students to make responsible

journalism with new technology