The facts: Twitter users and CBS Sports viewers were mistakenly informed of Joe Paterno’s death late Saturday evening, while he was still alive.

Our opinion: The technologies of social media are a good means of information; however, users should question the validity of claims as news.

Within nine minutes of Paterno’s alleged death, it was publicized all over Twitter and other media outlets, including CBS Sports. They announced the death of ex-Penn State coach late Saturday evening, when he actually died 9 a.m. Sunday. The premature announcement was based on an unverified student website report. This incident exposes the flaws of social media and should be used as a learning experience for all social media users.

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other outlets provide a wide variety of services to its users: networking, event planning, social and professional interests, and news updates. However, the issue with this new technology is anyone can create and publish information. Because of this CBS Sports—one of the most credible sources in sporting news—jumped the gun on Paterno’s death, and later had to issue an apology to the Paterno family.

This accessibility to news with a single click is the reason this type of technology is so popular; however, users should be wary of what they accept as news on these sites.  

The Paterno incident demonstrates this by the amount of comments and feedback Twitter users provided on his death. Penn State students even flocked to the Paterno statue to honor his memory Saturday night, not knowing he was still alive.

The use of this technology can connect users across the world and can inform the masses about information happening within a minute of it occurring. However, creditability is everything.

While Twitter can be a good way to keep informed, users should always fact check the news they’re being told. By doing this, it can assure them of accurate news. CBS Sports’ credibility is still recovering from the Paterno incident with statements saying it has “fallen short” of its journalistic standards.

This new technology is a great source of information, and has the potential to greatly impact our society by being able to quickly inform a large number of people. But, would we want to sacrifice the accuracy of our news? No. 

The issue boils down to users being good consumers of information, and not accepting everything at face value.

If we could ensure that pieces of information, like this one; could be questioned and then verified, the issue of inaccurate information wouldn’t even be an issue. Be cautious of what you accept as fact, it very well could be a miscommunication.