The News Media and the Use of Drones: Ethical Use Will Build Trust @UWJournEthics

From the Center for Journalism Ethics, a white paper from Kathleen Bartzen Culver and Megan Duncan, Drones in the Newsroom: Insights Into Audience Opinions and Expectations. 

Briefly, the authors conclude that the more audiences trust the media, the more they believe that the media will use drones responsibly in news gathering. They say in part:  "Recent research suggests a relationship between trust in news media and evaluation of news media ethical performance. Here, we find that those who perceive the news media as more ethical support the use of drones in journalism and consider it an important tool for journalist more than those who perceive low levels of ethical behavior. When we look at perceived ethical behavior by story type, we find that the perception of ethics doesn’t matter for “soft” news stories like traffic, weather, outdoor features, or stories on the environment. The level of perceived ethical behavior does matter in “hard” news such as crime, investigative or protest. Again, we find the difference between those who perceive high and low levels of ethical behavior is especially extended for stories about celebrities or impropriety."