In fact, the emergence of drone journalism is expected to become such a mainstay of the media industry in the next few years that undergraduate journalism students at the University of Missouri Journalism School, in Columbia, Mo., are now taking courses how to use drones to report stories.

"We have a class here of journalism students who are learning to fly J-bots, for journalism robots, or drones," said William Allen, a professor of journalism who pioneered the course.

"So they learn to fly them, and also do what reporters do: brainstorm ideas, go out and do reporting, do drone based photography and video. We're trying to see if this is going to be useful for journalism," he said.