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How The Daily Tar Heel designed the front page everyone is talking about

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How The Daily Tar Heel designed the front page everyone is talking about

"I don’t think anyone else except this generation could give voice and legs to this feeling of what it’s like to be on lockdown..."

Poynter.org,

5 min read
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What's inside?

The viral front page of UNC’s Daily Tar Heel is a harrowing visual narrative of fear of an active shooter.

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9

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The Daily Tar Heel, a student newspaper, had planned for its latest edition to cover the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s upcoming football season. Then, one day in late August 2023, an active shooter threatened the campus – and fatally shot his faculty advisor. Inspired by text messages exchanged during the lockdown, the newspaper’s staff pivoted to a new narrative. The resulting text-message-only front page not only conveyed the fear and helplessness UNC’s students and their families faced in those harrowing hours, but it also captured the angst of an era where school shootings have become an all-too-regular occurrence nationwide.

Summary

An active shooter forced the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill into lockdown on August 28, 2023.

The editors of The Daily Tar Heel – a nonprofit newspaper affiliated with (but not financially backed by) the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – were ready to go to press with coverage of the University’s upcoming football season the morning of August 28, 2023. By evening, their plan had gone by the wayside. That afternoon, an active shooter [later identified as grad student Tailei Qi] had forced UNC into lockdown. The perpetrator was captured, but not before he killed a faculty member [associate professor Zijie Yan].

The newspaper found inspiration for its graphic front page in text messages and social media posts sent during the attack. 

When the paper’s editors met that night, they knew their latest edition needed to address...

About the Author

Amaris Castillo is a writing and research assistant for the NPR Public Editor and a contributor to Poynter.org.

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