BYU communications professor uses passion for flying drones — both personally and professionally — as inspiration for award-winning research paper
School of Communications professor Quint Randle’s fascination with drones led him to co-write a paper that won the top faculty paper award from the Scholastic Journalism division of AEJMC. Randle teamed up with fellow drone-enthusiasts and communication professors Avery Holton from the University of Utah and Jean Norman from Weber State University to research the use of drones in collegiate environments and the policies that individual universities have surrounding their use on campus. “I’ve been interested in flying drones for the past couple of years,” said Randle. “The legalities and rules of using drones in journalism is a new and exciting topic. It’s an interest in my personal life and has become a big interest in my professional life as well.” The paper entitled “Drones on High: Uses and Challenges of Incorporating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Into Higher Education” gives a small glimpse into a larger project that Randle, Holton and Norman have been working on about the adaptation of drone usage in the field of news media. These professors believe that drone usage in news media has the potential to open the door to better visuals and multimedia to accompany reporters’ stories. Read the full story at comms.byu.edu.