About

The Daily Beacon is the campus newspaper serving the campus of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and its surrounding community. The paper is editorially independent and is entirely written, produced and managed by students. The Daily Beacon is published on Wednesdays during the fall and spring academic terms; plus content is published daily on our website, www.utdailybeacon.com. The paper is free of charge and is mainly supported by advertising.

The Daily Beacon has a distribution of 2,100 per week during the school year. Our office is located at 11 Communications Building, 1340 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314.

History

In 1871, students at the university published a semi-monthly newspaper, The University Times-Prospectus, which included “literature, science, news, wit, humor and whatever else may be of interest in connection with the Institution.” More frequent student newspaper publishing began in the first decade of the 1900s, and since 1906 a student newspaper has published continuously. The Orange and White published for 61 years, as a weekly first and later as a semi-weekly.

The Publications Council, which had overseen the newspaper since 1916, hired alumnus David Hall ’65 to develop a plan for a student-managed daily paper. That led to the establishment of The Daily Beacon on April 20, 1965, as the successor to The Orange and White. An initial publishing schedule of four issues per week was soon expanded to five days; this daily schedule remained uninterrupted for years until The Daily Beacon shifted much of its content online due to readers’ preferences.

Awards

Golden Press Card Awards 2024:

1st place Student-Commentary (Ansley Graves)

2nd place Student Sports Beat Reporting (Trevor McGee)

Southeastern Journalism Conference 2024:

1st place Election Project Award (The Media Center)

2nd place Best Opinion Editorial/ Editorial Writer (Ansley Graves)

Honorable Mention, Best Special Events Reporting (Emma Love)

Mark of Excellence Awards 2024:

1st place (Shelby Wright)

Southeastern Journalism Conference On-Site 2024:

2nd place Public Relations Challenge (Caden Dyer)

Southeastern Journalism Conference 2021:

6th place Best News Writer (Gabriela Szymanowska)

5th place Best Press Photographer (Gabriela Szymanowska)

4th place Best Special Events Reporter (Gabriela Szymanowska)

2nd place Arts and Entertainment Reporter (Jake Yoder)

5th place Best Sports Writer (Noah Taylor)

9th place Opinion/Editorial Writer (Mollie Chambers)

Pinnacle College Media Awards 2020:

1st place Best Sports Game Story (Noah Taylor)

Southeastern Journalism Conference On-Site 2020:

1st place Feature/News Photography (Gabriela Szymanowska)

2nd place Sports Photography (Kenneth Richmond)

3rd place Copyediting (Allie Justis)

Mark of Excellence Awards 2019:

1st place Online/Digital News Videography (Elexis Houston, Kelsey French and Braxton Ziolkowski)

Tennessee Associated Press Awards 2019:

2nd place Best College Media Website

Pinnacle College Media Awards 2019:

1st Place Best Multimedia Breaking News Story

3rd Place Best Special Section Cover (Eliza Razak)

Best of the South 2019:

4th place Best Sports Writer (Blake von Hagen)

8th place Best Feature Writer (Gabriela Szymanowska)

College Media Association 2018-2019:

1st place Multimedia Breaking News Story

3rd place Special Edition Cover (Elisa Razak)

Tennessee Associated Press Awards 2018:

1st place Online Ongoing Coverage (Kylie Hubbard & Cat Trieu)

1st place News Graphic/Illustration (Elisa Razak)

2nd place Newspaper Reporter (Kylie Hubbard)

2nd place Investigative/In-Depth Reporting (Gabriela Szymanowska)

2nd place Television Reporter (Colin Sawyer)

Green Eyeshade 2018:

1st place Best Columnist in the South (Evan Newell)

2nd place Best Sports Writer in the South (Blake Von Hagen)

3rd place Best Designer in the South (Elisa Razak)

Best of the South 2018 On-Site:

1st place Sports Writing (Tyler Wombles)

2nd place News Writing (Christy White)

2nd place Photography (Gabriela Szymanowska)

Best of the South 2018:

7th place Best College Newspaper

3rd place Best Op-ed Writer (Evan Newell)

4th place Best Sports Writer (Blake Von Hagen)

7th place Best Sports Writer (Noah Taylor)

5th place Best Newspaper Page Layout Designer (Elisa Razak)

Tennessee Associated Press Awards 2017:

1st place College Photojournalist (Adrien Terricabras)

1st place Online Spot Coverage

1st place Online Ongoing Coverage (Tyler Wombles and Damichael Cole)

2nd place News Story (Annie Tieu and Alex Holcomb)

The Daily Beacon Takedown Policy

To make a complaint that archived content is inaccurate, contact the editor-in-chief in writing by letter or email with the following information:

Name, telephone number and e-mail address,
The URL address of the content in question, and
The specific content that is inaccurate and an explanation of how the information is inaccurate.

The widespread use of search engines has resulted in a significant increase in requests or, often, demands that news organizations remove news items from databases scanned by public search engines. The decision to remove any news content from a digital database of The Daily Beacon or any other platform is at the discretion of the publication’s editor-in-chief.

The Daily Beacon’s policy is that we do not remove, alter or attempt to hide from search engines any material published. This includes articles or portions thereof or letters to the editor or portions thereof once they’ve been published. This applies retroactively to all archival materials on The Daily Beacon website, Instagram and YouTube channel. The Daily Beacon also does not remove authors’ names from articles, letters, videos or posts. Once published, whether in the print edition of The Daily Beacon, on the website or other social media platforms, it is considered a historical record and should not be altered.

Requests for removal or alterations to content should be judged on a case-by-case basis. The only situations in which content should be changed are in situations of libel, inaccuracy, copyright, ethical breach or if it is discovered to have been written partially or in whole by artificial intelligence software. The current editor-in-chief will make decisions on actions regarding alterations to content.

If the current editor-in-chief is confronted with a removal request for content not published under their term, the editor under whom it was published should be contacted and approve the removal.

Published content that was lawful, factually accurate and properly researched at the time of publication does not become illegal as time passes. Nor does a subject’s embarrassment or offense create a legal duty on the publisher’s part to remove a factually accurate story.

In extreme cases where The Daily Beacon editor-in-chief determines that follow-up material should be reported, such as in coverage of criminal cases, The Daily Beacon will amend the article or material.

Regarding content published more than one year ago, the complainant must provide reasonable proof to the editor-in-chief that the content in question is no longer accurate. For example, a copy of expungement papers should be provided in case any criminal charges are dropped. If published more than a year ago, contested quotes are highly unlikely to be amended without written or audio documentation.

If the contested content was published less than a year ago, routine internal procedures for checking the material’s accuracy will apply, and you may be asked to provide written documentation. Updates or corrections may be added if the material is factually inaccurate, but nothing will be removed.

In the event of a correction, a note detailing the date and time of the change will be included. The request will be reviewed and checked by the editor-in-chief, and if the editor determines it to be valid, an update or correction will be posted. If a correction or amendment is to be made, the change will be noted in an editor’s note placed at the top of the article, along with the date and time of the alteration.

Great care will be taken to ensure the appended material is accurate since changing the article could constitute a new publication of that article. In some cases, such as new information or developments that are material to the story (such as an adjudication), the editor may decide whether a story must be updated regardless of whether the person making the original request or the subject wants it to be updated.

Unprecedented Times

Due to threats happening under the 2025 Trump Administration against immigrants holding visas or undocumented, the Student Press Law Center warns “about the current threats to student speech posed by recent immigration enforcement actions on campuses across the country, (and) recommends student media leaders revisit their policies on takedown requests and anonymous sources, particularly for those whose immigration status may make them targets for their lawful speech. It also provides resources to aid in those decisions.” This “comes after Tufts University international student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by federal authorities and had her visa revoked, reportedly based on opinions expressed in a student newspaper op-ed.”

That being said, if any editor or the editor-in-chief is approached with a takedown request from an immigrant whose name or image was published under The Daily Beacon’s platform, they must revisit the article and consider removing the individual’s name or image from the Beacon’s website and/or socials if the content published could pose any threat to the individual’s ability to remain in the United States.