Assessment of the use of drones in journalism and development programmes in Africa

Abstract

Since the invention of the first modern unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in providing information, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to war managers, the commercialization of drones has provided various disciplines with an opportunity to put the tech to use in ways that would benefit the industry. Development communication is also quickly becoming the most pressing issue of our time and sourcing the right information that will drive change and package programmes for the sake of a community can only be realised if gathered and transmitted employing the right tool. While there are traditional means of capturing data for news and programming, UAV also referred to as drone technology is a tool that is finding its way in development communication. This requires full participation by the community if an initiative must be embraced. In Africa, drone technology is being utilised in various sectors such as agriculture, disaster management, security surveillance, health, and the media. Hinged on the Gatekeeping and Social Exchange theory, this study seeks to examine how the use of drones has served as an invaluable tool and is providing clues to support new ideas and development programmes across Africa, in four fields: disaster management, agriculture, healthcare, climate and combat operations. The paper used descriptive analysis with secondary data sourced from, reports across the internet, news, development agencies and academic research. Although the use of UAVs is quite novel in Africa, recommendations from this study entails project managers, media practitioners and governments to embrace change as it means a new way of doing things by encouraging adoption of such ideas and methods and improving overall training of field staff to effective news gathering.