Piers Morgan- pretentious or just popular opinions?
A journalist, writer and television presenter; it is safe to say Piers Morgan has a large social platform, especially with his new found following on Twitter, with 6.5 million followers compared to only 204,315 on Facebook.
Piers has become well known in recent years for not being afraid to express his opinion about politics and celebrities, especially on Twitter and whilst hosting Good Morning Britain, where he constantly starts rows with his guests. His opinions are especially controversial on the topics of feminism, race and mental health.
Piers often comments on celebrities appearances, most famously Little Mix and Kim Kardashian. Recently saying “What is empowering about this? Get your kit off, airbrush yourself to within an inch of your lives. What’s the point of it? Using nudity to sell their album” about Little Mix’s Instagram photo that was aimed to empower women. He was called a bully and disrespectful to young women when he described Little Mix as “foul-mouthed, talentless, clothes-allergic little dimwits”.
Piers also used his platform to share his views of feminism- declaring it is over. He was criticised as feminism is the right to do this and post whatever you like and for throwing abusive words at Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowsk about this instagram post, calling their behavior as ‘unladylike’ and was not acceptable for women to do.
So even though he is one of the most controversial writers in the UK, why is his popularity and platform growing? Celebrity recognition through twitter.
“I love being the centre of firestorms …JK Rowling abuses me on Twitter to 9m people — great”.
His online presence has been a very effective method of spreading his controversial opinions, being read by at least 6.5 million people everyday on the popular social media website Twitter. This is much more effective than writing an article in a newspaper due to the amount of young people and celebrities that often respond to Piers Morgan, such as Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and JK Rowling, who otherwise may not have seen the article or responded. He often engages twitter use by ensuring he tweets about relevant, up to date material about what is happening in the news and celebrity gossip, often using hashtags to ensure his tweets are seen by not just his followers. “I now have a much bigger platform than even when I ran the Daily Mirror,” he argues, with Donald Trump even following him.
The more controversy he causes both on air and online, the more entertainment is causes to his audience, therefore the more followers and recognition he gains. It would also appear his opinions are also thought by a number of the population, but are just too scared to announce it unlike Piers. So by publishing these opinions on twitter, he gains followers who actually agree and retweet his bold statements as they might feel more comfortable sharing this opinion if a celebrity also does.
