ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a global overview of the early history of drone journalism in the stumbling years from 2010 to 2018. Within a few short weeks in late 2011, camera drones demonstrated their potential to become a global game changer of visual news journalism. A series of pop-up, breakthrough events around the globe released an immersive creativity among the early adopters that transgressed previously accumulated practices, traditions and choices. The incidents and controversies of these first anarchistic years of early drone journalism demonstrate how a new technology opens up innovative possibilities for explorative storytelling from the outskirts of normative boundaries. Apparently, the spread of civic drones served as a much-wanted creative outlet for already connected networks. A striking feature was the incredible pace with which drones were adopted and adapted by activist journalists – across continents. The theory of what technology wants, by Kelly (2010), provides some underpinnings to understanding the transformative impact of the drone journalism networks that emerged during this period.
