© Jaime CookeJournalism students at the University of Missouri School of Journalism practice flying "J-Bots", or journalism drones, which are being used to gather coverage in news reporting.
Reporters looking to get close to a crime scene, take video footage of a raging wildfire, or chart the changes in an ecosystem may soon turn to drones, the little flying helicopters used mainly by the military.
In fact, the emergence of drone journalism is expected to become such a mainstay of the media industry in the next few years that undergraduate journalism students at the University of Missouri Journalism School, in Columbia, Mo., are now taking courses how to use drones to report stories.
"We have a class here of journalism students who are learning to fly J-bots, for journalism robots, or drones," said William Allen, a professor of journalism who pioneered the course.
"So they learn to fly them, and also do what reporters do: brainstorm ideas, go out and do reporting, do drone based photography and video. We're trying to see if this is going to be useful for journalism," he said.
The university course emerged from a growing interest in the variety of ways civilians can use drones, including farmers who want drones to spray pesticides or monitor crops and livestock on sprawling acres of land; cops who want to use drones to help search for suspects or missing chidlren; and energy companies who want to keep watch over oil or gas pipelines.
