Looking ahead to our final Emerging Media Platforms project, I decided to purchase a drone last month to use for my field test assignment.
In terms of content, I’m not quite sure yet what type of story I’d like to pursue and how I will use the drone to help tell it. Thus far, I’ve been focused on trying to learn how to operate it as well as the rules and ethics around using drones in journalism. In my mind, figuring out which emerging technology to use for my project and then obtaining it and mastering it was half the battle, so I thought it best to start there before shifting gears to content.
More recently, though, I’ve been considering potential topics for my story and I’m thinking about intertwining this assignment with my final for the Data Driven Journalism course I’m also taking this term.
For that class, I’ve decided to focus on the impact that the California housing crisis and gentrification are having on the city of Oakland. I’m collecting and analyzing census data to help illustrate how the city’s demographics have changed over a number of years while low-income and minority communities have been pushed out as rapid development and urban revitalization are greatly changing the city’s character.
It makes sense for me to merge these two projects together in an effort to produce a very thoroughly researched and visually compelling piece. At the same time; however, I don’t want to get burnt out on that one topic, so I am keeping my eyes open for other possible story ideas that leap out at me for this course.
I have noticed that the focus of our Week 8 asynchronous coursework for Emerging Media Platforms is Drone Journalism and I’m looking forward to jumping into that material to hopefully get some new ideas and inspiration for my project.
In a nutshell, I haven’t made a ton of progress on this assignment just yet but I do have a drone now, which makes me feel like I’m [somewhat] ahead of the game.
CiCi Says 