Drones and public opinion

A/Prof John Fitzgerald Criminology, University of Melbourne

Source: http://www.suasnews.com/2012/12/19965/foxkopter-australian-cricket-umpire/foxkopter-2/

Outline

• Drones and applications• Public opinion – Fear– Future – Fun– Framing : Context sensitivity

• Mission not the machine• The Feeling is the message

Definitions :Drone taxonomy (CASA/ICAO)

Public opinion: Boeing (2003)

• MacSween-George, (2003) (n=120)• Acceptable applications for UAVs– Fire fighting, crop dusting, cargo transport

• Four test conditions to influence opinion:– UAV information– Statistical data– Emotional influences – Combined statistical and emotional influences

2nd AIAA "Unmanned Unlimited" Conf. and Workshop & Exhibit A Public Opinion Survey- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Cargo, Commercial, and Passenger Transportation

Drone applications

• Surveillance• War and conflict (Security)• Emergency services• Eco monitoring (ivory)• Industry monitoring (viticulture, chicken farms)• Environmental monitoring (Heat stress, drought)• Journalism (Christmas Island, Syria)• Entertainment (foxcopter, film making, ) • Delivery and logistics (text books, blood products)

Public opinion • Looking-glass self (Cooley (1902)• Frame analysis (Goffman, 1974)• Spiral of silence (Noelle-Neumann,1984)• Role of media / fear (Altheide, 2002)

– Framing– Agenda setting

• Frame contestation (Brewer & Gross 2005; Chong & Druckman 2007)

• Affective vulnerability (Thrift, 2008)• Social media – human sensor networks • Gov 2.0

Altheide, D.(2002) Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.Noelle-Neumann, E. (1984), The spiral of silence: Public opinion – our social skin, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Public opinion

• Blumer (1948) Polling and Public opinion• Fairclough (1991) Critical discourse analysis• Zetterberg (2003) Social science and opinion – Things we must express collectively – politics – Opinions that we may express – vox populi

FramingsFear Fun

Future

Framings – fear

• Military deployments– Armed UAVs

• Domestic deployments– Privacy concerns – Physical safety - crowds

Military Drones and public opinion• Do you approve or disapprove of of the US

using drone strikes to target extremists

http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/52/

Military Drones and public opinion• Full question:• “Do you approve or disapprove of the United

States conducting missile strikes from pilotless aircraft called drones to target extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia? “

http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/52/

Military Drones and public opinion• Gallup (March 2013)

– 65% in favour of using drones against suspected terrorists in other countries, 28% disapproved.

• NBC News, Wall Street Journal (June 2013)– 66% in favour of using drones against suspected terrorists abroad , 16%

opposed. • YouGov

– 60% approved while 18% disapproved. – Same question with the caveat ‘even if innocent civilians may also be killed?– 25% approval , 52% opposed

– http://affairstoday.co.uk/american-public-opinion-and-drone-strikes/#sthash.9zqhApVE.dpuf

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/23/report-questions-drone-use-widely-unpopular-globally-but-not-in-the-u-s/

Fear : safety

Source: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=atgrads

• Tam (2011) Purdue University Student report• Email questionnaire (n=158)– Midwestern university staff– International Society of Aircraft Traders (ISTAT)– Repeating MacSween (2003)

Fear: Safety

Source: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=atgrads

Passenger transport

CCTV and public opinion• Ditton (2000)

– Strong support (65-90%)– Context sensitive– Age, gender, time of day, location, prior victimisation– Approx. 33% concerned with privacy – No evidence that CCTV reduced fear of crime– High level of trust in police using data– 44% CCTV will erode civil liberties – 70% “CCTV might stop the innocent from being wrongly accused”– People more concerned about being viewed in streets than shops– “If CCTV cameras were installed in this street would you feel more safe or less safe

alone at this time of day ?”– 42% the same – 56% safer – Making the safe feel safer, rather than making the unsafe feel safe

Future: Media framing • US media• 60 Minutes – Amazon

(December 2013)– Positioning Amazon before

cyber Monday– Other drone PR stunts

• Textbook drone delivery• Cake drone delivery• Pizza drone delivery• Parcel delivery drones• Beer delivery drones• Taco delivery drones• Sushi delivery drones• General delivery drones

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-amazon-announced-delivery-drones-2013-12

Future: Medical supplies

• Matternet – HIV AIDS blood tests deliveries

DHL (Dec 2013, test flight Bonn, 3Kg medicine) http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/24172205/german-firm-testing-drones-to-deliver-goods

Fun: Attitudes to drones logistics

• Drone2Home (Netflix) parody

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ucz3JpvDQjk

Fun: Attitudes to drones logistics

• Dominos domicopter

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tnQLPO-8TY

• Dolphinsafari.com

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo_f8mV5khg&list=RDucz3JpvDQjk&index=13

Image of delivery drones

Source: https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/01/03/public-wary-commercial-drones/

• Q: “Do you favor or oppose allowing private companies inside the United States to use unmanned drones to deliver packages ? “

Description Percent

Strongly favour 10

Somewhat favour 21

Somewhat oppose 19

Strongly oppose 25

not sure 26

Total 1000

| 31% favour

| 44% oppose

Image of delivery drones

Source: https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/01/03/public-wary-commercial-drones/

• Which of the following words do you think best describes Amazon’s announcement that it wants to use drones to deliver packages?

Description Percent

cool 31

goofy 23

Impossible 10

Scary 31

None of these 13

Not sure 12

Total 1000

Public opinion: Monmouth University

Source: http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/409aecfb-3897-4360-8a05-03838ba69e46. pdf

• Monmouth public polling institute (August 2013) – General population (CATI weighted , n= 1012)

• To ascertain levels of public support for different drone applications

Fear : Public opinion: Monmouth University

Source: http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/409aecfb-3897-4360-8a05-03838ba69e46. pdf

• Do you support or oppose the use of drones to: Description Percent

supportDon’t know

Issue Speeding tickets 31 6

Control illegal immigration on the nation’s border 62 8

Help with search and rescue missions 83 6

Allow law enforcement to use drones armed with weapons in hostage situations

52 9

Allow law enforcement to use drones armed with weapons to patrol the nation’s border

44 8

Fear: Public opinion: Monmouth University

Source: http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/409aecfb-3897-4360-8a05-03838ba69e46.pdf

Level of concern

Description Very Somewhat

A little Not at all

D/K

How concerned would you be about your own privacy if U.S. law enforcement starts using unmanned drones with high tech cameras and recording equipment?

49 20 15 14 2

Trust - CCTV

Public opinion: Duke

Source: http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2013/06/UAS-Research-Brief.pdf

• Eyerman et al (2013) – Ohio Law enforcement (n=119, 16% response)– General population (online panel 2119: 59% response)

• To enhance understanding of public perceptions and law enforcement concerns

Public opinion: Duke (2013)

Source: http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2013/06/UAS-Research-Brief.pdf

Public support by type of use – General population

Public opinion: Duke

Source: http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2013/06/UAS-Research-Brief.pdf

Applications – law enforcement

Public opinion: Duke

Source: http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2013/06/UAS-Research-Brief.pdf

Concerns– General population

Trust – regulation of commercial

Source: https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/01/03/public-wary-commercial-drones/

Trust – regulation of commercial

Source: https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/01/03/public-wary-commercial-drones/

Trust – regulation of commercial

Source: https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/01/03/public-wary-commercial-drones/

Contested framing

Rowling et al (2013) International Journal of Communication 7:2231-2253

• Cascading activation– Framing selects some aspects of a perceived reality and make

them more salient in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation” (Entman, 1993, p. 52)

– Interpretive frames activate and spread from the top level of a stratified system to the network of nonadministration elites, and on to news organizations, their texts, and the public

– Interpretations / contestations feed back from lower to higher levels

• Frame contestation shapes public opinion

Contested framing

Public opinion: rationalist

• Seven Stages of public opinion (Yankelovich 1991)– awareness, – a sense of urgency or a demand for action, – a search for solutions, – reaction and resistance, – wrestling with alternative choices, – intellectual assent, or resolution at the cognitive level, and – full resolution--moral, emotional, and intellectual.

• Public opinion is shaky and unstable unless it reaches the maturity of the seventh stage.

Yankelovich D (1991)

Singapore Kindness movement

• Wrestling emotions • Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sj4A6g2GP30

Happiness from the skies• Singapore kindness movement• May 2014, Guest workers + residents

• "By deploying drone technology in a new, creative and entirely unexpected way, we created asimple delivery system that not only brought a little happiness to two disparate segments of society but also built an invisible bridge that connects the guest workers to the local community. It also forces us to completely re-evaluate our perceptions of drones that are so often associated with negative news reports and violence," added O&M AP CCO Eugene Cheong.

Source: http://www.campaignbriefasia.com/2014/05/the-skies-were-filled-with.html