Britain’s got Talent? Piers Morgan voted the UK’s most influential journalist on social media
Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan was rated the UK’s most influential online reporter by the Press Gazette’s Social Media Journalism Awards.
Morgan, who has a Twitter following of over four million people and regularly argues with Sir Alan Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson, is no stranger to controversy.
On picking up the award, the TV personality, whose CNN show was axed earlier this year , said: "I don't win many awards as you can imagine.
“Social media is the future for journalism whether you're using it to provoke debate, for information or to be entertained and I've embraced it pretty wholeheartedly.”
Defending Twitter after Jeremy Paxman claimed it was for the braindead, Morgan said: "It may be, but it's what the youth of today are using as a form of communication.
“It's the best journalistic tool that I've encountered and I wish it was around when I had been a newspaper editor because of the ease with which you can find out what's happening anywhere in the world in real time."
Top ten in the list of was Piers Morgan, Caitlin Moran, Paul Waugh, John Rentoul, Susie Boniface, Paul Mason, Mehdi Hasan, Peter Jukes, Alex Thomson and Rodney Edwards.
Dominic Ponsford, editor of the Press Gazette said: "Our top 50 most influential journalists list has many famous journalists on it and some less well-known names because we took into account the views of readers, plus the expert judges, as well as the number of followers journalists have.
“What we have created is a great list of must-follow journalists which highlights the extent to which journalists today have become brands and publishers in their own right, independent of their employers.”
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