Drones
There were many dissertation topics discussed. My original idea was female aviators, but then it moved on to drones, then Twitter politics (in 2014/2015 I naively thought that it might be interesting to look at the upcoming 2016 presidential election on Twitter), and it finally settled on drones. I have been looking at drones (commercial and military) and all that goes with them since 2012 and the changes these past few years have been incredible – from their size, battery life, price, cameras, and technology, no laws and then laws (kind of), registration, Part 107, and drone conferences, drone podcasts, drone professional organizations, and even drone schools. Plus let’s not forget drones crashing into things (airplanes, people, etc.), humanitarian uses, their potential for good and evil, etc. We now live in a crazy drone world and drones are never going away. Never. Ever. So everyone needs to learn to deal with them.
In the beginning, all I wanted was for Amazon to deliver my books by drone (pizza drone delivery sounds good too) and I still want this, but I also want more regulation for commercial, military, and private drones, but I think that ship might have already sailed, and yet other times I think that government interference is not good either as it stifles creativity, but when almost every government on the planet is flying drones, building drones, or selling drones (or getting ready to fly, build, or sell) and when drones are a billion-dollar commercial and military industry there are no easy answers.
These photos of me and a few drones were taken at Edwards AFB/NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center at a NASA Social event in 2014.
I defended and passed my Ph.D. Proposal ‘When You Play The Game of Drones, You Win or You Die: Examining the Role of Drones in U.S. and English Language Allies Newspaper Media from 2008-2018’ on Halloween of 2019. And yes, I know, it’s an awesome title, but I recently changed it to ‘When You Play The Game of Drones, You Win or You Die: Examining the Role of U.S. Drone Strikes in U.S. and English Language Allies Newspapers from 2008-2019’ because I think flows a bit better.
Dissertation defended and passed on Thursday, June 10, 2021!
‘When You Play The Game of Drones, You Win or You Die: Examining the Role of U.S. Drone Strikes in U.S. and English Language Allies Newspapers from 2008-2019’
Abstract
In the years following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States ramped up its usage of drones and drone strikes around the world. Spanning three United States’ presidents, drone strikes became a regular feature in the US military arsenal. While American newspaper media and citizens have been very pro-drone, global citizens view drones in a far more negative light. This study examines US military drone strikes and English-speaking allied newspapers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and evaluates if coverage remains positive or negative depending on the newspaper’s conservative or liberal leanings from 2008–2019. The argument was tested by using a qualitative research methods methodology using a case study approach and newspaper content analysis with the theory of smart power. The results of this study found that the political leanings in our English-speaking allies’ newspapers do have some influence if the articles are positive or negative towards US drone strikes, but it is not a one size fits all situation. American newspapers, the liberal New York Times and the conservative Wall Street Journal, remained positive towards US drone strikes throughout the years of this study. Interestingly, this study also found that as the years of war continued, the number of drone strike articles found in the US and our English-speaking allied newspapers decreased, perhaps reflecting a donor fatigue situation.
Graduation Day Thursday December 9, 2021 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
