The News and Retractions of Joe Paterno’s Death Told Through Storify

Storify used to tell the story of Joe Paterno death claims and retractionsJoe Paterno’s failing health was a topic of conversation on the web Jan. 21. It became the main thing being talked about though around 8 p.m. when numerous news organizations reported that the former Penn State football coach had died. Word spread quickly, and just about as fast, news organizations began retracting their initial reports after learning that Paterno was still alive and in serious condition.

I used Storify to recap a small portion of the evening as it unfolded.

There are a lot of great lessons here. One is obviously showing students how they could use Storify to tell stories of school events. However, there are much deeper lessons here that deal with accuracy and verification of information, social sharing of news, news in the age of ‘Now’,  and repercussions for inaccurate work.

I’ll go ahead and embed the Storify below, high school teachers should take note that if you plan to show this in class, you may need to take screenshots or use other alternatives if Storify or any of the secondary links (like Facebook) are blocked at school.

If you are unfamiliar with Storify, here is a Youtube video that gives a good, quick overview. Also, if you are new to Twitter you might want to take a peek at this to help you make sense of some of the Twitter talk you may find confusing.

http://storify.com/manfull/timeline-of-news-and-retractions-regarding-joe-pat

Connect with Aaron Manfull on Twitter @manfull.

 

Written By: Aaron Manfull