Six journalists you should follow on International Women’s Day

I always feel uncomfortable posting on International Women's Day. Surely, of all the days of the year, this is one where we chaps should just shut the hell up?

And then, when I saw this work by my current students at City, I realised what should have been obvious all along: I should use the day to amplify female voices. There are far too many intelligent, skilled and insightful women on Twitter that aren't followed by nearly enough people, and whom you should follow straight away.

Best of all, of course, this is a format that I can replicate every year.

The rules

• They must work in or around journalism.
• I must find what they are doing genuinely inspiring or interesting
• They must have fewer Twitter followers than me.

Beth Ashton

Beth was one of the very first students I taught at City, back in 2012, and she's gone on to a stellar career at the Manchester Evening News, The Telegraph and now as head of audience at The Independent.

One thing that I've learnt in my near decade lecturing is that there's no better feeling that knowing one of your former students has eclipsed you; Beth has certainly done that.

Not a high volume Tweeter, but she's worth following for a mix of audience stuff, rugby and general politics.

Dr Glenda Cooper

This is dangerously close to a suck-up, because I lecture for Glenda in some of the teaching I do at City, but she's one of the many women at City doing great work right now (including the head of the journalism department Professor Mel Bunce).

Glenda's a researcher, head of the undergraduate course at City, the director of the European Journalism Observatory, and is involved in initiatives like News on Stage. And she's a novelist, too.

I suspect she doesn't actually sleep.

Isabelle Roughol

Isabelle has only come to my notice over the last couple of years, after she left LinkedIn, and started making waves as a media artisan. She's unfailingly thoughtful, generous and interesting, and her work gets ever better.

She's absolutely worth your time on Twitter (she's one of two people on this list I assumed were followed by more people than me, until I checked.)

And, in particular, right now she's looking for a job:

I sincerely hope she'll be snapped up quickly by some lucky organisation.

Pavan Mahal

Another former student on the list, Pavan recently became distribution editor for Insider. She's been generous with her time with more recent generations of students, at least two of whom have gone to work with her.

Follow her for good audience stuff, and the best of the work they're doing at Insider.

Esther Kezia Thorpe

I genuinely can't believe more people aren't following Esther. Both on her own, and as part of the Media Voices team, she's one of the most interesting emerging voices in media commentary, and you really should just click the follow button below RIGHT NOW.

I'll be honest. I don't always agree with Esther's takes — but they're always smart and insightful enough that they challenge me to refine and develop my own arguments.

Erika Marzano

I can't remember how I came across Erika and her work at Deutsche Welle, but she's consistently interesting, insightful, useful and fun on Twitter. Look, for example, at this thread contextualising an interesting new hire from Twitter.

And she's part of a panel on TikTok versus Reels at this year's International Journalism Festival:

TikTok vs Instagram Reels

TikTok is probably the biggest social media success story of the last few years, especially among young users. Few platforms have had the immediate impact that TikTok has among the Gen Z audience; they’ve taken to TikTok to be entertained, to interact with each other and to get the news.In a clear…

International Journalism FestivalYasmina Al-Gannabi audience development manager Deutsche Welle