Discussions on Social Stabilization of a Drone and Expansion of Its Potential - A Focus on Drone Law Enactment Process and Practices by Media, Citizens and Artist
서강대학교 영상대학원, Eun Kwang Park, Junho Oh · Han-guk yeongsang hakoe nonmunjip/Han'gug yeongsang haghoe nonmunjib · 2019
This study examines the problems caused by the process of drones becoming absorbed into society and gaining social acceptance from the perspectives of medium stabilization and the expansion of potential. Two problems caused by drones are the invasion of privacy and the threat to public safety. The key issue related to these problems is whether drones can be regulated by existing aviation laws. The ICAO and FAA intended to regulate drones according to aviation laws by changing the definition of an aircraft to include the concepts of remote communication and wireless control, thereby defining drones as aircrafts. However, changing the legal definition of an aircraft was insufficient because the problems caused by drones originate not only from their operation but also from the cameras mounted onto them. In order to regulate illegal drone shooting, the division between private and public territories and the definition of ownership thereof had to be changed. Moreover, geographical boundaries were converted into technically interpreted boundaries. Attempts to operate drones freely outside of government control continue, and drone journalism is a representative practice. Overturning information asymmetry, drones have achieved positive expansion as a medium that balances the power between individuals and the authorities in the realm of drone journalism. However, although drones are securing their ground as a tool for journalism, they are not free from the conflicts between the value of the freedom of expression and the provision of information and such issues as public safety and privacy. In Trevor Paglen's work, a drone is an automated visual machine that transforms humans, the main agents of image production, into data and objects of surveillance, and separates the sky from the ground as the realm of the surveillant. Hence, the medium of photography is not a tool for the objective recording of the world but is converted into a tool for data collection and interpretation