Imagery captured by drones and satellites is increasingly expanding visual reporting and airborne investigations in the news media, especially from conflict zones and during crises. As disruptive innovations emerging from dual-use technologies, these smart tools also add new dimensions to the coverage of everyday events, including sports, nature, the environment, construction sites, and city transformation. Yet, as drones and satellites become increasingly autonomous and integrated with AI, their applicability in news coverage raises profound questions about journalism’s societal endeavors and about how evolving aerial technologies are reshaping the relationship between individuals and the media. As both satellites and drones become smaller, networked, and ubiquitous devices, sometimes nearly invisible to the human eye, surveillance and cybersecurity risks in journalism call for renewed attention.
While most news media rely on commercial satellite companies and on software produced by only a small number of global drone manufacturers and tech companies, questions concerning who owns, stores, and potentially resells the collected aerial data are seldom up for debate. Control over the aerial image is uncertain in other ways too. Drone journalism, where it is possible at all in conflict zones, exposes reporters and their equipment to electronic warfare and hostile actors, and miniature drones can be hacked, jammed, or subjected to data interception. News drones nonetheless remain indispensable tools for visual observation and fact checking. The same equipment also serves other purposes: camera drones have been used for hybrid operations in Europe, hovering above critical infrastructure sites such as airports and power plants, which raises questions about the safety and regulation of aerial technologies in society. More recently, the ease of using AI visualizations to fabricate satellite imagery of the kind seen on Google Earth has caused controversy among open-source intelligence experts. In the era of AI tools, even the authenticity of aerial images is in jeopardy, and deserves our scholarly attention.
This Research Topic asks what aerial journalism (Gynnild & Uskali, 2026) means for individuals and for societies over the long term, and in particular to what extent the aerial and algorithmic observation prompted by camera drones and satellites may transform journalism into an all-encompassing form of reporting, even surveillance. What might a future ‘aerialfication’ imply in democratic as well as in autocratic societies, from a journalism perspective?
One challenge is that mainstream news media are themselves becoming powerful global actors in large-scale observation, data collection, and behavioral monitoring. Coupling satellite and drone footage with AI-based recognition may give rise to, for instance, the mass identification of protesters and the tracking of individuals over time. If flights appear intrusive or consent is unclear, citizens may perceive satellites and camera drones as instruments of surveillance rather than as tools for journalistic news gathering. What are the experiences of those being filmed from above?
Autonomous news gathering may complicate editorial responsibility as well. Journalists may not gather the footage themselves, but purchase recordings from subcontractors owned by companies or governments. Who is responsible when humans are not involved in the news gathering process? And when the sky becomes crowded with cameras, what happens to journalistic witnessing?
We invite innovative approaches to both drone and satellite journalism as an exploratory practice at the frontiers of AI-based reporting, and to aerial journalism as an emerging news beat. We welcome creative, constructive, and critical contributions that help pinpoint, clarify, predict, exemplify, or envision issues of future aerial journalism, with a special focus on surveillance challenges and social responsibility. Who carries such responsibilities, what do they consist of, and how are they exercised in practice? Papers may draw on the responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework, or on other theoretical starting points concerning the responsible use of satellite and drone imagery, when researching sub-themes such as:
• aerial journalism and the public good
• aerial journalism, witnessing, and surveillance
• airborne visuals and the reshaping of audience perception of events
• ethical dilemmas of aerial communication technology development and visibility
• swarms, cybersecurity, and other risks
• public experiences of satellite and drone journalism, and news media trust
• AI, satellite and drone images, and authenticity
• aerial journalism and surveillance capitalism
• visual evidence, trustworthiness, and fake news
• visual storytelling and education
• crises, catastrophes, conflicts, and warfare coverage from the air
• regulation, ethics, and accountability
• drones, hybrid threats, and journalism.
Information and Instructions for Authors
Manuscript summaries
Manuscript summaries (Frontiers’ name for abstracts) of up to 500 words will be considered until 12 November, 2026. Authors are encouraged to submit a manuscript summary before submitting a full manuscript.
Article types
This Research Topic accepts all the article types listed below except Case Report, Systematic Review, Data Report, Study Protocol, and Policy and Practice Review.
Submission pathway
Please also note that this Research Topic accepts submissions via Frontiers in Communication only.