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Setting Agenda for Drone Research: New Media, Scopic Regimes and Research Affordances
Language: English
There is a growing body of work in geography, sociology and anthropology on the impact of drones on warfare, surveillance, civil protest and tourist practices. However, the visual social research has so far neglected the studies of drone as a technological médium that is changing our view of reality, landscape and politics.
This session aims at setting research agenda for visual sociological research and use of drones as methodology of social research. Some of the guiding questions are: How to study the new visuality provided by the new medium – UAV (drone). What can we study in the military, militant, activist and tourist uses of drone? How to collect and analyze the data? What kind of power relations exist in different user-modes of drone technology?
Who are the operators – cameramen: activists, journalists, YouTube celebrities, rich tourists? What are the regimes of the production? What are the subjects and “views” captured? What is the nature of the new visuality and new media journalism aided by drones? What are the ethical considerations for the drone use by activists and journalists? What is the thematic scope of the visual nased research where drone-collected data can advance the studies of power relations, social justice and urban transformation?
The goal of the session is to come up with different perspectives in understanding of power relations in drone studies and the use of drones.