Many of us use social media platforms as a way to keep up with our social lives or work, or to simply see what's trending in the world right now, news and otherwise. With the amount of information and hot topics that trend across social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people are beginning to question whether social media could be the next news source.

Well, it already is — particularly if you live in countries like Ukraine or Venezuela.

Ukraine's uprising has been a trending topic since November and a hot topic since January. Even though revolutionaries won their battle against Ukraine's president, they still have to contend with Russia, which recently broke an agreement with Ukraine to not invade their country.

Media sources are being shut down, which is supported by claims that they are controlled by terrorists, extremists and other dangerous profiles. Nothing we haven't all heard before. The media bans have not extended as far as Crimea yet, but since Russia's military has seized control — in spite of warnings and sanctions from the United Nations — it's probably not too rash to assume more bans will follow.

Before the Berlin Wall fell, fax machines were the information-gathering tool of the era, because they couldn't all be controlled by the government. Social media is the new tool, and works the same to both the people taking part in the uprising and the government trying to stay intact.

Information is what helps to turn tides in a war, and unfortunately a government-controlled media can be incredibly effective. This is where social media steps in.

With YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Vkontakte, etc., there are endless options to post comments, photos and even videos for the world to see. No matter how hard the government works, they cannot shut down every site, simply because there is always a new one popping up. People have a way to stay informed 24/7, and news can be spread immediately at the click of a button. It's revolutionary.

Social media is not only relevant for people in the uprisings, however. It also allows the rest of the world to follow current events without filters. Depending on who you are, this could be viewed as a good or a bad thing.

It makes it much more difficult to lie to the public when citizens can post images and comments whenever they please, and the speed of news updates makes the realities of situations seem more imminent than if they were printed in a newspaper. There are no more filters; no deciding what will be printed on a front page. Instead, all news is shared — some more than others — but media is rarely lost altogether.

Aside from informing the world, social media can also bring people together. It allows them to see that they are not the only group fighting for their common beliefs. Many reports have credited initial tweets by journalists and activists as the key mechanism that brought hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians out into the streets, and it is this continuous spread of information that drives the people pushing for change.

Venezuela is going through a similar protest, and like Ukraine, it started out as a peaceful movement, and the citizens there are using social media to communicate as well. More than 14 million people in Venezuela — out of a total population of nearly 30 million — have smartphones, which gives them access to instant updates and allows them to post and receive videos.

Prior to his death last year, former President Hugo Chavez had many major news sites shut down or manipulated. That helped Twitter become the new dependable news site for Venezuelans, even though the information posted is not always correct. The Venezuelan government is now trying to block specific posts that are antigovernment, though that isn't going so well since more than 14 million citizens use Twitter.

The citizens of Venezuela make no bones about how they use Twitter — to keep up with government information, to keep other citizens informed and to spread the word internationally regarding their situation.

Both Venezuela and Ukraine feel that their only option for free speech is social media, with all the other available media under government control.

In the U.S., we use social media to keep up with social events and record our lives, but it should not be forgotten that social media is a news platform — a powerful one — and it's one of the few mediums that corruption cannot control.