The remote reporter

It might be time to add a new position to the list of endangered news media members — helicopter crews.

The TV helicopter might be in its death throes, thanks to unmanned vehicles.

I chatted with a colleague a week or so ago who was out at the giant convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas recently. The hot exhibit on the floor? Drones.

Some police departments are already using these things. So are some scientists. They cost about $50 an hour to run.

Nebraska, FastCompany reports, is ground zero for the revolution. A journalism professor at the University of Nebraska is figuring out how news organizations can acquire content using remote mobile devices.

There’s just one problem: They’re illegal. The Federal Aviation Administration has been given until September 2015 to figure out how to bring drones into the airspace it controls.