High-tech way of estimating crowd sizes
Journalists needing the sizes of gatherings such as antiwar protests have historically had to make very rough guesses or rely on estimates from police or organizers generally believed to be inaccurate -- but now technology is removing much of the guesswork.
Air Flight Services of Santa Clara, Calif. uses a $400,000 camera take high-resolution photos of crowds, and then counts the marchers -- one by one. The technology, normally used to count fish in rivers and trees in orchards, is gaining popularity as a tool to pinpoint crowd sizes.
In February, the firm was hired by The San Francisco Chronicle to count the crowd at an antiwar rally, the Miami Herald reports. Organizers had claimed more than 200,000 people came to the rally, but aerial photos showed only about 65,000 people.
The firm also found that a recent march in Miami that police estimated at 40,000 people had just 5,000.
News organizations should look to take advantage of such technology when possible; and when it's not affordable or practical, be extra conservative in publishing any estimates.
As many have long suspected and Air Flight Services has now shown, estimates the media generally rely on tend to be inflated.
Apr 08, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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