Drones: Not Just For the Military Anymore

12 February 2012

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Late last month, for the first time, President Obama publicly confirmed the American use of drone strikes in tribal areas in Pakistan. He answered a question on the subject during a Google video conference with people around the United States.

BARACK OBAMA: "I want to make sure that people understand that actually, drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaida and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it has been applied."

Debate continues about how many people, including civilians, have been killed in those drone attacks.

Drones are technically known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. These aircraft, however, are not just used for air strikes, and they are not just used by governments.

Human rights activists, environmental groups and journalists are increasingly using drones in their work.

Drones can fly above news events to capture images that reporters may not be able to get close to on the ground.

Matt Waite is a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Students in his Drone Journalism Lab are exploring different uses for drones in news reporting.

MATT WAITE: "Drone journalism as an idea is less than a year old at this point. The first instance I saw was a labor protest in Poland where a man had a remote-controlled helicopter and he put a camera on it and he flew it up and got just a view of the protests from the air. And you could see police moving into position to kind of block the protest route."