Why do male voices dominate when it comes to news influencers on social media? The Reuters Institute Digital News Report asked a representative sample in Britain and the US to name any individual social media accounts they follow when it comes to news content and found that in both the UK and US all ten of the most popular news influencers were men . When Press Gazette shared the list on Twitter, radio presenter Louise Hulland suggested a list of female news influencers: Victoria Derbyshire from the BBC, Emily Maitlis from Global, Shelagh Fogarty (BBC), Sophy Ridge from LBC and Beth Rigby from Sky. ITV newsreader Marverine Cole noted that women of colour were also missing from the list.
She said: “So many excellent female news broadcasters out there, across the board. Big question is how can that balance be achieved where weight and support (as revenue?) is put behind top female news and current affairs voices and faces?”. And Sky News digital assistant Talya Varga suggested colleagues including Sophie Ridge, Yalda Hakim and Alex Crawford would be good female additions to the list.
In 2023, Press Gazette compiled a list of 180 UK journalists with more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. Nine out of the top ten most-followed individuals were men with Laura Kuenssberg from the BBC in fifth spot with 1.41 million followers.
The Collabstr 2024 Influence Marketing Report looked at 80,000 influencer profiles across major social media platforms globally and found that 70% are fro.
