16 women paving the way in digital media and technology

To mark International Women's Day this week here's our pick of 16 of the top female journalists and tech innovators who've made an impact on the industry over the last few years.

This list is by no means exhaustive, so do keep your suggestions coming in by tweeting us @journalismnews using the hashtag #IWD2016.

Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, the Guardian

Viner became the first editor-in-chief of the Guardian in 2015, taking over from Alan Rusbridger in June. Having previously edited both Guardian Australia and Guardian US, she beat stiff competition from Emily Bell and Janine Gibson to get through to the final interview stage carried out by the outlet's owner, the Scott Trust, before Rusbridger stepped down.

Joanna Geary, EMEA lead, Twitter Moments

After spells at the Guardian and The Times, Geary joined Twitter in 2013, overseeing how journalists and newsrooms use the platform to source and disseminate news. She's now the EMEA lead for Twitter Moments, a service that curates the best tweets about news stories and events happening throughout the day. Geary is also the founder of Hacks/Hackers London, a monthly meet-up for journalists and technologists.

Sasha Koren and Sarah Schmalbach, the Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab

The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab was set up in June 2015 with funding from the Knight Foundation, with Koren as editor and Schmalbach as senior product manager.

"It's been set up to take a close look at mobile-first storytelling and delivery of news, to experiment within the newsroom and with other organisations, and to share what we learn and generally help push the industry forward with its use of mobile," Koren told Journalism.co.uk.

You can read more about their plans for the Lab in this Medium post by Schmalbach.

Cory Haik, chief strategy officer, Mic

Haik recently joined Mic as chief strategy officer after overseeing 'Project Rainbow' at The Washington Post, where her team built innovative news products for the mobile web, Kindle and smartwatches among other platforms. We're looking forward to seeing what she has in store for Mic.

Nonny de la Peña, immersive journalist

De la Peña, known as the 'Godmother of Virtual Reality', produces pioneering immersive journalism experiences that combine motion capture and real audio with a digital recreation of the event.

Her most recent projects to be featured at the Sundance festival are Across the Line, documenting anti-abortion protests, and Kiya, following the experience of two women trying to stop their sister being killed by an ex-boyfriend.

Zaina Erhaim, project coordinator and trainer, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting

After finishing her journalism training in London and a stint at BBC Arabic, Erhaim returned to her native Syria in 2013. She's now a project coordinator and trainer with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), teaching print and TV journalism to citizen reporters in Syria to enable them to tell their own story.

A third of her trainees are women who would otherwise have to travel outside the country to access similar workshops due to the lack of journalism training in Syria.

Eva Constantaras, data journalist and trainer

Working with the NGO Internews, Constantaras is currently sharing her considerable expertise in data journalism and open data by running workshops in regions such as Afghanistan.

Despite low levels of data literacy in some areas, commonly coupled with the lack of a fully-formed independent media, she is committed to helping local journalists get to grips with data-driven stories. 

Mindy McAdams, digital journalism professor, University of Florida

McAdams's Medium blog about the journalism industry is one of the must-reads here in the office at Journalism.co.uk. 

Melody Kramer, 18F and visiting Nieman Fellow

In January 2014 Kramer made the surprise announcement she was leaving NPR – where she made waves as a digital strategist and editor – for the government digital agency 18F.

Even though she's not working in journalism now, Kramer makes the list for reminding us that "there's a lot of stuff we can learn from other industries". And also because her newsletter, Mel's Sandbox, is awesome.

Sarah Koenig, host and executive producer, Serial

While Koenig can't be single-handedly credited for the recent podcast rival, at the end of 2014 her true-crime audio show became the fastest-downloaded podcast in the history of iTunes as audiences surged to hear the latest episode investigating the murder of Maryland school student Hae Min Lee in 1999. There probably hasn't been a podcast that's generated this much whodunnit discussion and debate since, well, ever.

Avid LarizadehDuggan, general partner, Google Ventures, UK lead, Code.org.

An entrepreneur and advisor, LarizadehDuggan oversees the UK activities of Code.org and Hour of Code, which launched in 2013 with one of its aims being to encourage more women to learn to code. In addition to her role at Google Ventures, she still had time to found her own online boutique, Boticca.

Emily Bell, director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Bell is a leading media commentator, having worked at the Observer and the Guardian for 20 years, with a four year stint as director of digital content for Guardian News and Media.

Jenni Sargent, director, Eyewitness Media Hub

A leading voice on the ethics and verification of eyewitness media in journalism ethics, Sargent launched the Storyful-backed EMH with co-founder Sam Dubberley in 2014. Last year she launched First Draft, which aims to educate newsrooms and journalists in best practice for the use of images and video from social media around breaking events, such as the terror attacks in Paris in November.

Anna Doble, online editor, BBC Newsbeat

Former head of online at Channel 4 News, Doble was enlisted to work her digital magic on BBC Newsbeat at the end of 2014. She has been overhauling the newsroom, using her skills to help broadcast reporters develop into cross-platform journalists.

Florencia Coelho, data journalist, La Nación

Coelho is part of the team behind the Argentinian outlet's award-winning data project Declaraciones Juradas Abiertas, which revealed statements of assets from leading public officials in the country. Despite a lack of Freedom of Information law in Argentina and the fact that asset statements are only available in PDF format, Coelho and her colleagues manually scanned more than 1,500 documents to complete the project.

Let us know who else should be on this list in the comments below or by tweeting us @journalismnews.

This article was originally published on 6 March 2015 and updated on 8 March 2016.

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