Drone journalism: The empirical arguments for its utilization in investigative journalism in Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to establish the empirical arguments for the utilization of drones in investigative journalism in Nigeria. The study is situated on the tenets of technology acceptance model while the survey research design was adopted with questionnaire as instrument for data collection on a sample size of 100 respondents. Findings from the study indicate that the roles of drone journalism in investigative journalism range from timelines, aerial photography to in-depth coverage of issues. Further findings indicate that drone journalism enhances the practice of investigative journalism to a very large extent while the challenges of drone journalism in investigative journalism range from invasion of privacy, safety issues to operational issues. The study recommends that drones should be fully adopted in the practice of investigative journalism to enhance timely completion of an issue under investigation, and journalists should be adequately trained to understand how to operate drones as this would go a long way toenhance their work particularly when handling investigative stories. When using drones for investigative stories, journalists should ensure they focus on the issue to avoid invading the privacy of others, drones should be applied in investigative journalism to enable journalists covering such stories report with pictorial evidence, drones should be utilized for investigative journalism to help journalists uncover events in restive and hazardous environments and drones should be fully deployed by media organizations in Nigeria as a tool uncover the activities of terrorists and bandits in the North Eastern part of the country with a view to help the security agencies arrest the security concerns in Nigeria. The study concludes that drone journalism plays a significant role in the practice of investigative journalism as the use of drones minimizes the cost involved in investigative journalism, in-depth coverage of issues, timeliness as well as aerial photography respectively.