PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: A shooting at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill earlier this week left one professor dead and a community really, especially students on and around campus.

Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences was shot on Monday afternoon.

A campus lockdown lasted three hours, alarming students and staff, who barricaded themselves for safety.

Police say Yan was an adviser to the alleged gunman, who was a graduate student.

The school's paper, The Daily Tar Heel, published a front page that went viral, showing text messages sent between friends, family and loved ones throughout the traumatic event.

Emmy Martin is the editor in charge of that paper.

And she joins me now.

Emmy, welcome and thank you for joining us.

I appreciate it.

EMMY MARTIN, Editor, The Daily Tar Heel: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, tell us about where this idea came from.

How did it come together?

And what was it like for you and your staff to pull this front page together?

EMMY MARTIN: So, on Monday, I was in lockdown myself.

And we were planning to go ahead with a paper fully focused on the upcoming football season at UNC.

And, of course, when this happened, we knew that is not the way to go.

We fully scrapped the paper we had planned and we knew, this is such a traumatic event on campus, we have to cover it.

As soon as I got out of lockdown -- I was in a campus building a couple buildings over from where the shooting occurred -- I walked straight to the newsroom and sat down with my staff.

And we kind of talked through what this looks like.

And, at first, we didn't know what the cover would be.

Honestly, at first, we thought just a blank front page.

There's no words after such a traumatic event for students.

But then, that evening, I went home,was laying in bed, looking at all the text messages that I personally had received, while I was sheltering in place, and also looking at Instagram, and seeing so many UNC students post texts that they received, or that they sent to friends who were also in lockdown.

And I -- that's what I knew, if at least I was getting these texts, every single person campus got a "Are you OK, are you safe?"

message.

And so that's when I knew that had to be our cover.

AMNA NAWAZ: It is just stunning to read through all of these, especially when they're pulled together like this.

I mean, they range from messages like: "Are you safe, where are you?

", to "I can see people running and hear screaming," to, "I'm scared.

I am so scared right now."

Emmy, I know, you must have grown up watching coverage of shootings at other schools.

Had you ever lived through anything like this?

Or did you think it would happen at your school?

EMMY MARTIN: It's something we're seeing more and more.

It's something I saw a lot growing up.

I had to do lockdown trainings in middle school and high school, and I'm sure everyone my age has as well.

It's really not something you ever think you will experience until you do.

And so many students on UNC's campus had already experienced an active shooter situation, which is terrifying.

I personally had not, which is something I'm thankful for.

But before I became editor in chief, it was something I thought of.

What if there is a shooting on UNC's campus?

How will I respond?

And it is, in a way, sad that I had to think that.

And I know other editors at other student newspapers who have had to cover active shooting situations on their campus.

And so it has been front of mind for me in the fact that now we have to sit through it and we have experienced on our campus.

And now I have been the editor of a school paper covering an active shooter situation and one that did have a fatality.

It's sad, and it's something that I still have yet to process.

AMNA NAWAZ: This was only in your second week of school, your second week as editor in chief of that paper.

How does this change the rest of the year, how you see it?

How has it changed the community there, do you think?

EMMY MARTIN: I think everyone's perspective on campus is different now.

I was looking into the year very excited about what we would get to cover, and I'm still very thankful that I get to lead the newspaper for this year.

But this event has marked everyone's experience at UNC this year, and everyone who is an alumni of UNC.

And so, looking forward, this is something that is going to be a large part of our coverage.

And it's something that's not going to go away.

I think an event like this has lasting impacts on everyone who experienced it or who was close to it.

And so my team is working really hard to make sure we are reflecting that in our coverage and serving our community in the best way that we can.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, Emmy, as you mentioned, you could have just covered the story and written it up as any other news story.

But you chose to do this in this way on this cover.

And it feels like it was meant to send a message.

Was it?

What's that message?

EMMY MARTIN: I think we wanted to create a historical record of what happened on Monday, August 28, on UNC's campus, but we also wanted to create something that kind of gathered the full experience of that day and how UNC students felt on that day.

Furthermore, those text messages are messages that anybody who has lived through an active shooter situation, that they have received.

And so, in a way, yes, this is a cover that is so personal to UNC students.

But it's also a cover that way too many people across the nation can connect with.

And I think, in a way, if people read it that way and read it as a message, I think that's also true.

AMNA NAWAZ: Emmy Martin is the editor in chief of The Daily Tar Heel.

Emmy, thank you for joining us, and thank you to you and your team for the journalism that you do.

EMMY MARTIN: Thank you.