UNC-Pembroke student reporters navigate coverage of two shootings in a month
'Their work pushed the university to get information out,' advisor says
It was a Wednesday afternoon when gunshots were reported at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Raven Hanning was about an hour away from campus.
After texting their roommate to make sure they’re OK, Hanning, the editor-in-chief of the student paper The Pine Needle, put on a journalist hat and started to coordinate the breaking coverage.
“We were trying to figure out what’s going on in using our contacts on campus,” Hanning said. “We’re going on social media. We’re looking through our emails.”
The 10-member newspaper covered a fatal, on-campus shooting for the first time, an effort their professor said prompted university officials to release more information to the public.
Less than a month later, they’re getting a redo. Another shooting killed two people and injured four near campus just two weekends ago.
The first shooting Feb. 7 killed 19-year-old former UNCP student Khalil Alford. The following day was a “hectic” one for the student journalists. They were working from early morning to 8 p.m.
Hanning said reporters and photographers were sent to do man-on-the-street interviews, cover a press conference, get in contact with the police and university officials and track down incident reports.
The first thing the team wanted was the victim’s name.
“No one wanted to speak to us,” Hanning said. “We were being told that we’re being insensitive. We were being told that we needed to just stop doing the story. But, of course, we can’t do that.”
Darlene Natale, a faculty advisor for The Pine Needle, said her students knew who the victim was from YikYak, but no one would go on the record to confirm.
Their work process included putting everything they found into Google Docs and then going about verifying everything they could, Natale said.
They eventually got the identity verified. The Feb. 8 story named the victim, relying on words from students and one of the victim’s best friends.
The university sent out an announcement confirming the identity shortly after the publication. A similar announcement went out after the paper ran a story on the arrest, quoting the State Bureau of Investigation.
“I think their work pushed the university to get information out to the campus community sooner,” Natale said. “It was very much a muddled situation, but I was very proud of them that they stepped up.”
Overseeing shooting coverage for the first time, Hanning said it was important to remind the team that their interview skill was a necessity.
“You have to know how to talk to people, how to build some form of basic rapport,” Hanning said. “You have to know how to be sensitive to the situation” especially when it comes to the victim’s loved ones.
Another crucial aspect, Hanning said, was with photo etiquette.
As reporters covered a vigil, Hanning reminded them that while they were free to take pictures on public property, they needed to silence the shutter sound and turn off their flashes to respect the solemnity of the situation.
Being a part of the community while also being a journalist wasn’t easy.
Hanning emphasized the need to separate personal emotions from their reporting by being straightforward and not using adjectives or colorful language.
“The vigil was very difficult,” Hanning said. “I don’t think there was anyone on my team who went there and didn’t cry. It was just trying to remember that we have to be nonbiased with the reporting. We have to be very matter-of-fact.”
Natale said getting organized and being communicative are also keys in a breaking news situation.
The subsequent shooting occurred near the UNCP campus March 2 at an apartment complex less than half a mile away, according to The Pine Needle. Local outlets reported the deaths of a 19-year-old and a 22-year-old, with four injuries.
Because the shooting took place right before spring break, Managing Editor Kia Wynne said the team’s coverage efforts were limited to gathering information from the police and capturing photos
They planned to conduct student interviews and cover a potential vigil upon their return this week, she said.
“With this one, we learn to be more organized,” Wynne said, comparing coverage of the two incidents. “We’ll probably be better with our organization like assigning roles and everything.”
Despite the proximity of the two shootings, Wynne said it didn’t significantly affect her mental health, citing her familiarity with gun violence from her upbringing in Lumberton, North Carolina.
Lumberton sits in Robeson County, which had the highest violent crime rate in the state in 2021. The city is regularly listed as one of the “most dangerous” cities on travel websites, The Robesonian reported.
“I would hear my neighbors shooting their guns in the background at my house,” Wynne said. “But (the recent shootings) did make me wonder about our safety on campus.”
Wynne highlighted lessons learned from the previous weeks: how to make a Freedom of Information request, understanding the demanding nature of a newsroom and the importance of overcoming introversion to engage with sources.
The editors said the paper will provide ongoing coverage of both shootings, focusing on investigations, potential campus security changes and community concerns around gun violence.
“I’m happy I was able to cover it so early in my career to use your own words because it gave me a lot of perspective into what my career could entail,” Hanning said. “But it’s still sad, it’s still sad.”
Hanning referred to a stark increase in gun violence in schools. North Carolina saw 33 mass shootings in 2023, the highest it has seen in previous years.
Similar fatal incidents took place last year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michigan State University and the University of Virginia.
Student journalists at these institutions shared experiences of trauma and discussed their journalistic duties in a story with The Brown Daily Herald, a student newspaper at Brown University.
“No one ever prepares you for this,” said Eva Surovell, editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily at UVA.
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