Journalism and drones. Challenges and opportunities of the use of drones in news production

Periodismo y drones. Retos y oportunidades del uso de drones para la narración informativa en España

doxa.comunicación | 26, pp. 35-58 | 35

January-June 2018

ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978

How to cite this article:

Fernández Barrero, M. A. (2018). Journalism and drones. Challenges and opportunities of the use of drones for informative narration in Spain. Doxa Comunicación, 26, 35-58.

M.ª Ángeles Fernández Barrero. Degree in Journalism (1998) and PhD in the same subject (2003) by the Uni-versity of Seville, where she teaches. Among her books: “The editorial: a journalistic genre open to debate” (Co-municación Social, 2003), as well as the articles “Peculiarities of the editorial before events that mark history” (Ámbitos, 2002) and “Editorials joint: from the experience of Transition time to the joint article of the Catalan press “(Zer, 2012). She has published “Immersion journalism to unmask reality” (Comunicación Social, 2013), “The problem of diligence and the right of rectification” with Antonio López, among others.

University of Seville, Spain

[email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0001-7045-7880

Resumen:

El uso de drones en el periodismo permite la obtención de imáge-nes aéreas de difícil cobertura, con un consiguiente abaratamiento de costes, perspectiva, rapidez, movilidad y mayor seguridad para los periodistas. En este ensayo científico pretendemos analizar las oportunidades que brinda el uso de drones al relato informativo en España, con una industria incipiente, y debatir acerca de circuns-tancias que frenan su desarrollo para su incorporación a las rutinas periodísticas, como el coste que supone para los medios una inver-sión en una tecnología con una alta siniestralidad, escasa durabili-dad y constante modernización, la complejidad técnica y adminis-trativa que implica su uso, la escasez de periodistas especializados o las limitaciones de una legislación restrictiva, que hasta hace poco circunscribía la obtención de recursos gráficos a espacios rurales.

Palabras clave:

Periodismo; drone; relato informativo; medios de comunicación; imágenes aéreas

Recibido: 21/10/2017 - Aceptado: 11/12/2017

Abstract:

With drone journalism it is possible to obtain aerial images in situations that are difficult to cover, with perspective, speed, mobility, greater safety for journalists, and at a lower cost. In this paper, an attempt is made to analyse the opportunities offered by the use of drones for news production in Spain, where an emerging industry has been detected. This is followed by a debate on the circumstances and causes behind their slow incorporation into newsroom routines, such as the cost of investing in a technology with a short lifetime due to its constant evolution and high accident rates, the technical and administrative complexity involved, the lack of specialized journalists, and restrictive laws which, until only recently, limited filming to rural areas.

Keywords:

Journalism; dron; news story; mass media, aerial images

Received: 21/10/2017 - Accepted: 11/12/2017