Jan 6, 2014

MMMM # 425 --- The Media Drone Battle Drones on.

A new drone/chopper called a "quad copter" may allow news media outlets  to capture aerial stills and video of news events without paying tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to lease a helicopter.

     There's just one problem with the $1,200 drone: FCC regulations still prohibit for-profit use of drones in the U.S.
     Poynter published an article about the latest skirmish, a battle between a freelancer who provided some drone video to a newspaper and the FAA. The freelancer calls it a "gray area" of the law.
     What I wonder is this: if I used tethered helium balloons to lift a video or still camera aloft, would I still be in violation? 
     At some point these aerial video machines will be in common usage. The questions is how regulated they will be.

[UPDATE: FAA says on 1-6-14 that drone journalism is NOT allowed.]

###

    The New Republic had a weather forecast this past week...a critical review of the "Weather Channel".

"...it now feels less like a public utility—something you check on the way out your door, after your shower and before putting on your watch—and more like another media site you waste time on once you’ve arrived at work.

     The article mentions the channel's recent naming of winter stores. The one up north right now is "Hercules", for example. The only officially named storms have been hurricanes...and those names are regulated by the National Weather Service folks, not the for-profit TV weather folks. But the chief criticism of the article is the channel's insistence on including "editorial material" like cute puppy pics and deteriorating buildings in Detroit.  They explain that last one:

"when you think about it, it’s fundamentally a meteorological process—the process of decay, the building facing off against the elements and losing slowly over time.”

Marley, 2013
 Right. And the sun shines and rain falls on the puppy's head too.


[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]


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