50 Crucial Thought Leaders in Media Communications

Introduction

The problem is not a shortage of voices. The problem is knowing whose voice is genuinely worth following. Media and communications is a field where everyone has an opinion and very few people have done the years of research, practice, or facilitation required to make those opinions genuinely useful to the organisations trying to navigate the disruption.

This list is different from most. Rather than recycling the same handful of names that appear on every media thought leader compilation, I put together a list focused on the people who are genuinely shaping how the field thinks, practises, and evolves in 2025 and 2026. Every person here was selected on three criteria. First, they have made a substantive contribution to the specific discipline of media and communications.

Second, they are actively engaged with the professional community right now. Third, they represent the breadth of what media and communications actually encompasses globally.

The 50 leaders assembled here span 15 countries and six disciplines. They include academics whose research drives industry standards, practitioners who have built agencies and methodologies from scratch, newsroom leaders who have guided major publishers through digital transformation, and advocates whose work keeps press freedom and information integrity on the global agenda.

Jonno White works with leadership teams inside media, communications, and public interest organisations to strengthen the conversations, alignment, and decision-making that allow their strategies to translate into results. To enquire about keynotes, workshops, or executive team facilitation, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Media and Communications Matters Now

The stakes of getting media and communications right have never been higher. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, drawing on surveys across 48 countries, found that confidence in journalism has declined sharply. At the same time, the Edelman Trust Barometer documents year after year that trust is now the most consequential currency in business and public life.

The 2025 WAN-IFRA World Press Trends Outlook, drawing on insights from 172 senior media leaders across 66 countries, found that the news industry is simultaneously resilient and under structural strain. Revenue diversification, digital transformation, and AI adoption are the top three priorities for news publishers worldwide. Research published in 2025 found that 73.8 percent of journalists and media workers across six continents had already used generative AI in their work.

These shifts are not confined to journalism. Corporate communications functions are under pressure to navigate AI-generated content, platform fragmentation, declining trust in institutions, and the rise of creator economies that bypass traditional media gatekeepers entirely.

Book Jonno White to run a keynote or leadership team workshop for your media or communications organisation at jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person here was selected on three criteria: a substantive contribution to the field; active engagement with the professional community in 2025 and 2026; and a genuine contribution to the geographic and disciplinary breadth of the field. The 50 leaders here span 15 countries and six thematic categories.

Section 1: The Researchers Mapping the Future of News

This first category brings together the scholars and analysts who produce the rigorous, evidence-based research that helps the entire field understand where it is headed.

1. Nic Newman

Senior Research Fellow | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism | UK

Few people have done more to give the global news industry a clear annual picture of itself than Nic Newman. As the lead author of the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, the world's largest ongoing study of consumer behaviour around news across 48 countries, Newman has produced one of the most widely-cited barometers in the field for over a decade. His background spans the BBC, where he played a significant role in shaping the broadcaster's digital strategy, and the Reuters Institute, where he now serves as a Senior Research Fellow. His 2026 trends and predictions report, based on surveys of 280 news leaders across 51 countries, identified the platformisation of politics, the creator economy's growing challenge to legacy publishers, and the uneven adoption of AI as the central forces reshaping the industry.

2. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Professor of Political Communication | University of Copenhagen | Denmark

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen spent six years as Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, departing in late 2024 to join the University of Copenhagen as a Professor of Political Communication while continuing as a Senior Research Associate at Oxford. In that time, he built the Reuters Institute into the most credible global research centre on the future of journalism, commissioning and producing dozens of studies that shaped industry understanding of digital transformation, platform power, and audience behaviour. His co-authored book "The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society" offers one of the most rigorous academic treatments available of how platform companies have reshaped the news ecosystem.

3. Emily Bell

Founding Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism | Columbia Journalism School | USA

Emily Bell is the Founding Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School and one of the most consequential thinkers on what journalism becomes when it moves into the digital world. Before founding the Tow Center in 2010, she spent her career at Guardian News and Media in London, leading the digital transformation of one of the world's most respected newsrooms. She co-authored the landmark paper "Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present" and writes a regular column for the Columbia Journalism Review and The Guardian that remains required reading for anyone working in media strategy.

4. Charlie Beckett

Professor | LSE | Director, JournalismAI | UK

Charlie Beckett is a Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE and the founding director of Polis, the university's journalism think tank. He is also the director of the LSE's JournalismAI project, working with newsrooms around the world to help them understand and use AI responsibly. His background as an award-winning film-maker and editor at the BBC and Channel 4 News before joining academia gives his research rare practical grounding. His JournalismAI Starter Pack, released in 2025, was described by practitioners as the most useful resource available for newsrooms just beginning to integrate AI tools.

For organisations wanting to explore the leadership and team dynamics that allow AI adoption to succeed, engage Jonno White for a keynote or facilitation session at jonno@consultclarity.org.

5. Damian Radcliffe

Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism | University of Oregon | USA

Damian Radcliffe holds the Carolyn S. Chambers Chair in Journalism at the University of Oregon and is one of the most prolific and accessible researchers on the future of news media. He is the lead author of WAN-IFRA's annual World Press Trends report, a three-time Knight News Innovation Fellow at the Tow Center at Columbia, an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University, and a Life Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts. His 2025 analysis of the WAN-IFRA World Press Trends Outlook provided some of the clearest available synthesis of where global news publishing stands, drawing on data from 172 senior media leaders across 66 countries.

6. Courtney Radsch

Director, Center for Journalism and Liberty | Open Markets Institute | USA

Courtney Radsch holds a PhD from American University and currently serves as Director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute, where she produces cutting-edge research into the political economy of AI, news media market structures, and what she calls information power. Her work sits at the intersection of journalism, technology policy, and human rights, and she has testified before congressional, parliamentary, and competition authorities in the USA, UK, and Europe. She was recognised on the 2025 list of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.

7. Alfred Hermida

Full Professor | University of British Columbia | Canada

Alfred Hermida is a Full Professor at UBC's School of Journalism, Writing, and Media and one of the field's most respected voices on social media, digital journalism, and media innovation. His career began at the BBC, where he spent 16 years including four years as a founding member and then news editor of the BBC News website, a role that earned four consecutive BAFTA awards for best news website. His 2014 book "Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why It Matters" won the National Business Book Award in Canada. In 2025 he received the UBC Killam Research Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious academic honours.

8. Cherian George

Professor of Media Studies | Hong Kong Baptist University | Singapore/Hong Kong

Cherian George is a Professor of Media Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University and one of the most important voices in the world on media freedom, censorship, polarisation, and the role of communication in diverse democratic societies. His 2025 book "Fighting Polarisation: Shared Communicative Spaces in Divided Democracies" (Polity) addresses one of the defining communications challenges of the current era. He received the 2024 Asia Communication Award from the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre and was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2022.

Section 2: Media Strategy, Transformation and Innovation Leaders

This second category brings together the practitioners and strategists who help news organisations and media companies navigate digital transformation.

9. Lucy Kueng

Strategic Advisor | Reuters Institute / Independent | Switzerland/UK

Lucy Kueng holds a PhD and Habilitation from the University of St Gallen and is one of the world's foremost experts on strategy, innovation, and leadership in media. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute, a non-executive board member of the NZZ Media Group, and formerly of Swiss public broadcaster SRG. Her advisory clients have included the BBC, CNN, SVT, Schibsted, Google, and Meta. Her 2025 book "Creator Shift" decodes what the creator economy means for legacy media companies and how they can build a bridge to the opportunities it presents.

10. Anita Zielina

Founder and CEO | Better Leaders Lab | Austria

Anita Zielina is a media executive, board director, and strategic advisor working at the intersection of media, technology, AI, and leadership. She is the Founder and CEO of Better Leaders Lab and serves on the supervisory boards of Funke Mediengruppe and Mediahuis, two of Europe's leading media groups. She is also Vice Chair of the News Product Alliance and teaches executive education at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Her particular expertise is in helping executive teams and boards make better decisions at the intersection of AI strategy, organisational change, and leadership culture.

11. Jodie Hopperton

Product and Technology Initiative Lead | INMA | UK/USA

Jodie Hopperton is the Product and Technology Initiative Lead for the International News Media Association (INMA), which serves over 6,000 media professionals in 120 countries. A British media executive based in Los Angeles, she previously served as Director of Syndication and Licensing for The New York Times. In her INMA role, Hopperton produces some of the most practically useful research and case studies available on news product development, mobile-first strategy, AI integration, and revenue innovation. Her coverage of INMA's World Congress 2025 in London provided one of the clearest available analyses of where news businesses stand in the transition from page-view to diversified revenue models.

12. Sonali Verma

Generative AI Initiative Lead | INMA | Canada/India

Sonali Verma is INMA's Generative AI Initiative Lead, an independent consultant with deep expertise in editorial strategy, data journalism, and digital transformation. Before joining INMA, she spent over five years in business and product roles at Sophi, the AI-powered platform owned by the Globe and Mail, and before that spent a decade at the Globe as an editor and audience engagement leader. Her 2025 research reports on generative AI in news media are among the most downloaded resources INMA has produced. She received the first-ever President's Award in 2025 from Grupo, recognising her contributions to the global media community.

13. Greg Piechota

Researcher-in-Residence, Readers First Initiative | INMA | Poland/USA

Greg Piechota is Researcher-in-Residence at INMA and leads the Readers First Initiative, which tracks digital subscription strategy for the news industry. He is considered one of the world's foremost experts on news subscriptions, drawing on research conducted during fellowships at Harvard Business School and the Reuters Institute at Oxford. In 2025 alone, he engaged with INMA members more than 200 times, visiting over 50 companies worldwide. His report "There Is No Subscriptions Ceiling for News Media" challenged a dominant industry assumption and changed how many publishers think about audience monetisation potential.

14. Amalie Nash

Newsroom Transformation Initiative Lead | INMA / National Trust for Local News | USA

Amalie Nash is INMA's Newsroom Transformation Initiative Lead and a Senior Advisor to the National Trust for Local News. She spent a decade at Gannett / USA Today Network, most recently as Senior Vice President of Local News and Audience Development, where she was responsible for transforming a division of over 250 publications from a page-view model to a diversified revenue model. Her INMA Newsroom Transformation newsletter consistently addresses the most pressing operational challenges facing newsroom leaders, including AI integration, newsletter strategy, and building data-fluent editorial cultures.

For organisations wanting to translate media transformation ideas into leadership team alignment and execution capability, Jonno White facilitates executive offsites and leadership workshops globally. Reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org.

15. Federica Cherubini

Director of Leadership Development | Reuters Institute | Italy/UK

Federica Cherubini is the Director of Leadership Development at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, where she leads the Institute's expanding work on building the current and next generation of newsroom leaders. Before joining the Reuters Institute, she was Engagement Manager at Hearken and Audience Projects Editor at Conde Nast International. Her annual Changing Newsrooms report is the most comprehensive available survey of how newsrooms around the world are evolving their workplace practices, talent strategies, and diversity approaches. Her 2025 edition drew on surveys of 135 news leaders from 40 countries.

16. Angela Romano

Associate Professor | Queensland University of Technology | Australia

Angela Romano is an Associate Professor at QUT's Digital Media Research Centre and one of Australia's foremost researchers on journalism, digital media, and media innovation in the Asia-Pacific region. Her work focuses on how journalism organisations adapt to technological change while maintaining their public service mission, and she has been a consistent presence at INMA events as a voice for the Asia-Pacific perspective on news media transformation. Her geographic location and regional expertise give the broader media research conversation an important perspective that can get lost when most voices come from New York, London, and Brussels.

Section 3: Public Relations, Strategic Communications and Measurement

This third category brings together the practitioners, educators, and advocates who shape how the public relations and communications profession understands itself, measures its impact, and navigates an increasingly complex information environment.

17. Gini Dietrich

Founder and CEO | Arment Dietrich / Spin Sucks | USA

Gini Dietrich is the Founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich and the creator of the PESO Model, a communications planning framework that has become the standard for how PR and communications practitioners think about integrating paid, earned, shared, and owned media. The PESO Model is now taught in journalism and communications programmes around the world. Her Spin Sucks blog and the associated podcast and community have become one of the most active professional development ecosystems in the PR industry. Her perspective on what it means to be an ethical communicator in an era of declining media trust is one of the most grounded and practically useful in the field.

18. Mark Borkowski

Founder | Borkowski PR | UK

Mark Borkowski is the Founder of Borkowski, a London-based agency that has shaped some of the most attention-grabbing public relations campaigns in British media history. Clients across his career have included Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Damien Hirst, Mercedes-Benz, and the 2012 London Olympic Cultural Festival. He has been named in every edition of PR Week's Power Book and was inducted into the PR Week Power Book Hall of Fame. He is a regular and often provocative commentator on media culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, and the BBC, and his 2025 launch of PREEMPT, the first brand reputation insurance product designed to protect against cancel culture, demonstrated his ability to translate deep industry experience into genuinely novel commercial offerings.

19. Richard Bagnall

Co-Founder | CommsClarity Consulting | AMEC Chair | UK

Richard Bagnall is a globally recognised expert in PR and communications measurement and evaluation, with over 30 years of experience building some of the world's most respected media intelligence businesses, including Metrica, Gorkana, PRIME Research, and CARMA. He is Co-Founder of CommsClarity Consulting and serves as Chair of AMEC. He led the development of AMEC's Integrated Evaluation Framework, recognised globally as best practice, and co-authored the revised Barcelona Principles. He has been inducted into the PR News Measurement Hall of Fame and received the CIPR President's Medal for outstanding contribution to the PR industry.

20. Karthik Srinivasan

Communications Strategy Consultant | Independent | India

Karthik Srinivasan is an independent communications strategy consultant based in India with over two decades of experience across corporate communications, public relations, marketing, investor relations, digital and social media, and employee communication. He has held senior roles at Ogilvy, Flipkart, and Edelman. His personal commitment to posting only original, unsponsored content on LinkedIn has made him one of the most trusted voices in the Indian communications industry. He also lectures regularly at the Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru on digital marketing and corporate communications strategy.

21. Mimi Kalinda

Group CEO and Co-Founder | Africa Communications Media Group | South Africa

Mimi Kalinda is the Group CEO and Co-Founder of Africa Communications Media Group (ACG), Africa's leading pan-African public relations and communications agency. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda and raised in South Africa, she has spent over 27 years developing communications strategies across Africa, Europe, and the United States, working with organisations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, MTN Group, the Mastercard Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund. Her 2025 book "Echoes of Influence: Harnessing the Power of Storytelling as a Leadership Strategy" encapsulates her core argument: that the most transformative act that organisations and leaders can take is learning to tell their own stories with authority and clarity.

22. Matt Navara

Social Media Consultant and Industry Analyst | Matt Navara Media | Wales/UK

Matt Navara is one of Europe's most in-demand social media consultants and industry analysts, with over 20 years of experience that includes roles as Director of Social Media at The Next Web and consulting engagements with Google, the BBC, ITV, the United Nations, the UK Government, and Meta. His Geekout newsletter, read by more than 30,000 social media and communications professionals weekly, is consistently among the first places that major social platform changes and emerging trends are surfaced and analysed. He has appeared in Netflix documentaries on social media and has carved out a distinctive niche as a trusted source in a space full of people claiming expertise they do not have.

23. Mitali Mukherjee

Director | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism | India/UK

Mitali Mukherjee became Director of the Reuters Institute in April 2025, becoming the first person from the Global South to lead one of the world's most influential journalism research institutions. A political economy journalist with over two decades of experience in TV, print, and digital journalism in India, she has worked as Markets Editor at CNBC TV18 and Prime Time Anchor at TV Today and Doordarshan, and as Consulting Business Editor at The Wire and Mint. Her appointment signals a genuine shift in how the Reuters Institute positions itself globally, and she has made clear that one of her priorities is ensuring the Institute's research genuinely represents journalism as it is practised across the entire world.

International travel to engage with global media leadership is often far more affordable than organisations expect. Jonno White works with teams across Asia, Australia, and the UK. Contact jonno@consultclarity.org.

24. Angie Drobnic Holan

Director, International Fact-Checking Network | Poynter Institute | USA

Angie Drobnic Holan is the Director of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute, which supports and promotes fact-checking for 170 organisations in more than 60 countries. Before taking this role in 2023, she was Editor-in-Chief of PolitiFact and was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for fact-checking the 2008 presidential election. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 2022. Her work at the IFCN, which includes managing the Global Fact Check Fund with Google and YouTube, represents one of the most concrete global efforts to maintain the infrastructure of information integrity.

25. Julie Posetti

Global Director of Research | ICFJ | Professor | City, University of London | Australia/UK

Julie Posetti is Global Director of Research at the International Center for Journalists and a Professor of Journalism at City, University of London. She is the co-editor of the UNESCO landmark handbook on Journalism, Fake News and Disinformation and the lead author of the Chilling reports (UNESCO/ICFJ 2021-2022), the most comprehensive global research available on online violence against women journalists. Her 2025 report "The Tipping Point: The Chilling Escalation of Online Violence Against Women in the Public Sphere," produced for UN Women, documented the specific and escalating threat environment that women in public-facing media roles now navigate daily. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Information Integrity.

26. Nathalie Malinarich

Director, Growth, Innovation and AI (interim) | BBC News | UK/Chile

Nathalie Malinarich is the Director of Growth, Innovation and AI (interim) at BBC News, and one of the most experienced digital innovation leaders in global public service media. She began her career in Chile as a magazine reporter before joining the BBC in 1999, working across radio and digital news and becoming World Executive Editor of the BBC News website before moving into mobile strategy and innovation roles. A 2025 interview with The Drum revealed her current focus on how the BBC balances AI experimentation with its fundamental commitment to trust, including the corporation's "cameras at every count" initiative during the 2025 General Election, where 369 live feeds were managed remotely and streamed on iPlayer.

Section 4: AI, Trust and the Information Environment

This fourth category brings together researchers and practitioners working specifically on the intersection of artificial intelligence, information integrity, and the communications environment.

27. Felix Simon

Research Fellow in AI and News | Reuters Institute | Germany/UK

Felix Simon is a Research Fellow in AI, Information and News at the Reuters Institute and a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. His 2025 paper "Rationalisation of the News: How AI Reshapes the Gatekeeping Processes of News Organisations," published in New Media and Society, and his co-authored "Generative AI and News Report 2025," surveying nationally representative samples in six countries, are among the most rigorous and widely cited pieces of empirical research on AI and journalism published in 2025. His output in the field is prolific, accessible, and consistently grounded in original evidence rather than speculation.

28. Heidi Larson

Professor | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine | Director, Vaccine Confidence Project | UK/USA

Heidi Larson is a Professor of Anthropology, Risk, and Decision Science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Founding Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project. While her primary focus is health communication, her work on how misinformation spreads through communication systems, how it exploits emotional vulnerabilities, and how trust is built and eroded at scale is among the most important available research for anyone working in media or communications. Her 2025 publication in Nature, "Science's biggest problem is loss of influence, not loss of trust," argued that the field has misdiagnosed its core challenge.

For leadership teams working through trust crises, Jonno White facilitates conversations that help organisations understand what they actually stand for and how to communicate it with integrity. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

29. David Grossman

Founder and CEO | The Grossman Group | USA

David Grossman is the Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, a Chicago-based leadership communication and internal communications consultancy that has served Fortune 500 clients for over 30 years. He delivered the 2025 commencement address at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and has established himself as one of the foremost authorities on how leaders communicate with employees and how internal communication strategy shapes culture, trust, and organisational performance. His five books on leadership communication, including the 2024 "Heart First: Lasting Leader Lessons from a Year That Changed Everything," synthesise decades of consulting experience into frameworks that communications professionals can apply directly.

30. Craig Silverman

Author and Independent Journalist | Canada

Craig Silverman is a Canadian journalist, author, and researcher who has spent his career investigating how misinformation, disinformation, and platform manipulation shape the information environment. Formerly at BuzzFeed News and ProPublica, he has moved to independent research and writing. His ongoing work on AI-generated content, platform economics, and the relationship between social media companies and the news industry continues to set the terms for how the field understands the challenge it faces. His landmark report "Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content" remains a foundational text for understanding how false information spreads through digital networks.

31. Yuen Chan

Senior Lecturer | City, University of London | UK/Hong Kong

Yuen Chan is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Journalism at City, University of London, specialising in digital journalism, media freedom, and communications in China and the Chinese diaspora. Her research and teaching address how journalism and communications operate in authoritarian and hybrid media environments, and she is one of the most authoritative voices in the English-language academic world on how information flows across Chinese-language and English-language media environments. She is a founding member of Journalism Educators for Press Freedom and has contributed commentary and analysis to major international outlets including Al Jazeera on media and press freedom in Hong Kong.

32. Nikki Usher

Associate Professor | University of San Diego | Senior Fellow, Center for Journalism and Liberty | USA

Nikki Usher is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of San Diego and Senior Fellow at the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute. Her 2021 book "News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism" was one of the most discussed journalism scholarship titles of recent years. Her continuing research on the political economy of news, local journalism sustainability, and the structural conditions that shape what journalism gets produced is among the most practically relevant academic work available for news executives.

Section 5: Audience, Social Media and Digital Strategy

This fifth category brings together practitioners who help media organisations and communications teams understand their audiences, operate across social and digital platforms, and build sustainable digital strategies.

33. Sara Fischer

Media Correspondent | Axios | USA

Sara Fischer is a media reporter and business analyst at Axios whose work specifically covers the media industry, tracking business model innovation, corporate strategy, and the economic forces reshaping news companies. Her Axios Media Trends newsletter, recognised by the Association of Business Journalists as the best media and entertainment newsletter for 2025, reaches over 160,000 professionals across the media, tech, and entertainment industries. She is also a media analyst at CNN. Her reporting on the growing creator economy, the changing relationship between major platforms and publishers, and the economics of AI and media in 2025 and 2026 has been consistently ahead of the wider conversation.

34. Laura Hazard Owen

Editor | Nieman Journalism Lab, Harvard | USA

Laura Hazard Owen is the Editor of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, where she oversees day-to-day operations and strategic planning for one of the industry's most influential publications on the future of journalism. She covers the future of the news industry with particular focus on reader revenue models, newsletter strategy, digital publishing, and the business models that are and are not working. Her daily reporting, which spans subscription strategies, platform changes, and industry consolidation, is among the most reliably useful sources of practical intelligence for news media professionals. The Nieman Lab's annual Predictions feature, which Owen coordinates, draws on hundreds of practitioners and researchers to produce one of the most comprehensive annual assessments of where journalism is headed.

35. Patrick Egwu

Reuters Institute Fellow | Freelance Investigative Journalist | Nigeria

Patrick Egwu is a Nigerian freelance investigative journalist and media researcher who has reported from Johannesburg, Berlin, Chicago, and Toronto for outlets including Foreign Policy and America Magazine. He joined the Reuters Institute's Fellowship Programme in October 2025 to document Nigeria's unique investigative journalism techniques. His work sits at the intersection of investigative journalism practice and media development, and his presence in the Reuters Institute's fellowship cohort reflects the growing recognition that the future of journalism is being shaped as much by practitioners in Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg as it is in New York and London.

36. Richard Fletcher

Director of Research | Reuters Institute | UK

Richard Fletcher is the Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and co-author of the Digital News Report, the world's most comprehensive annual survey of news consumption across 48 countries. His specific area of expertise is misinformation, disinformation, and the role of social media in the news ecosystem. He co-authored with Felix Simon and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen the 2025 Generative AI and News Report. His research is distinguished by its methodological rigour and its consistent focus on what the evidence actually shows, rather than what the loudest voices in the debate are asserting.

37. Kelly McBride

Senior Vice President and Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership | Poynter Institute | USA

Kelly McBride is Senior Vice President and Chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute, and also serves as NPR's Public Editor. She is one of the leading voices on media ethics and democracy, working with news organisations and journalists to navigate the ethical dimensions of covering polarised politics, online harassment, AI-generated content, and the shifting standards of journalistic practice. Her work at Poynter, which combines academic ethics with direct newsroom consultation, addresses some of the most practically difficult questions in contemporary journalism.

38. Cindy Otis

Author and Misinformation Researcher | USA

Cindy Otis is a former CIA analyst who now works as an author, researcher, and public speaker on disinformation, information warfare, and how individuals and organisations can build resilience against manipulation. Her book "True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News" has been widely adopted in educational settings and is one of the most accessible practical resources available on understanding how disinformation is engineered and how it spreads. Her background in intelligence analysis gives her work a distinctive character: she approaches media literacy and information integrity not as an academic exercise but as an operational challenge requiring practical tools and disciplined thinking.

Section 6: Global and Emerging Market Voices

This sixth and final category brings together leaders who are shaping media and communications in regions and contexts that often go underrepresented in conventional lists.

39. Natalia Leal

CEO | Lupa | Brazil

Natalia Leal is the CEO of Lupa, Brazil's pioneering fact-checking and media literacy organisation, and one of the most important figures in the rapidly growing Latin American information integrity movement. She has built Lupa into one of the most credible and operationally sophisticated fact-checking organisations in the Global South, earning recognition from WAN-IFRA in its 2025 Digital Media Awards Worldwide for Best Use of AI in the Newsroom. Her leadership of Lupa as both a journalistic and a business enterprise, combining editorial standards with sustainable revenue models, offers a model that fact-checking and public interest journalism organisations around the world can learn from.

40. Marian Liu

National VP of Civic Engagement | AAJA | Co-Lead, MediaWatch | USA

Marian Liu is the National Vice President of Civic Engagement for the Asian American Journalists Association and co-lead of MediaWatch, an initiative exploring how AI can help establish benchmarks to keep news media accountable to standards of accuracy and fairness in coverage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She was named one of AAJA's 2025 Simon and June Li Leadership Transformation Fellows. Her work brings together two of the most important threads in contemporary media and communications: the representation question of whose stories get told, and the methodological question of how AI can be deployed to measure and improve the fairness of media coverage at scale.

41. Seenhau Tham

Head of Operations | Malaysiakini | Malaysia

Seenhau Tham is Head of Operations at Malaysiakini, one of Southeast Asia's most prominent independent digital news outlets and a landmark example of journalism sustainability in a challenging media freedom environment. An award-winning journalist with over two decades of experience in broadcast, video, and digital journalism, she brings executive leadership experience from within one of the region's most watched independent news operations. Malaysiakini's model of reader-funded independent journalism in Malaysia represents one of the most important case studies available for understanding how digital news can sustain itself economically while maintaining editorial independence in challenging political contexts.

42. Austin Tam-George

Lecturer | Pan-Atlantic University | HBR Advisory Council Member | Nigeria

Austin Tam-George is a lecturer at the School of Media and Communication at Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, Nigeria, a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, and a Senior Researcher and Consultant who has served as Technical Advisor to UNESCO on global conferences related to education and youth communication in Africa. He has also worked as a Research Consultant to NEPAD on good governance monitoring projects. His work on the intersection of communication, law, and corporate strategy in African business contexts fills a significant gap in the global communications conversation.

43. Rozina Breen

CEO and Editor-in-Chief | Bureau of Investigative Journalism | UK

Rozina Breen is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, one of the world's most respected independent investigative newsrooms. Her leadership of the Bureau represents one of the most important examples of how investigative journalism can sustain itself financially as a mission-driven, non-profit enterprise independent of commercial pressure. Her work building and sustaining the Bureau's funding model, which combines philanthropic support with growing direct reader funding, is closely watched by journalism organisations globally as a potential template for public interest media sustainability.

44. Meera Selva

Fellow and Programme Director | Reuters Institute | UK/India

Meera Selva is a Fellow and Programme Director at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, where she leads programmes for mid-career journalists and journalism educators from around the world. A former BBC and AFP journalist who reported from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia over nearly two decades, she brings a practitioner's deep understanding of global journalism to her work developing the next generation of journalism leaders. Her focus on journalism from the Global South and on building leadership capacity in regions that the international journalism conversation often overlooks is an increasingly important contribution to the field.

45. Joy Mayer

Director | Trusting News | USA

Joy Mayer is the Director of Trusting News, an organisation that helps journalists and news organisations understand why people distrust the news, what they need from news media, and how to build more trusting relationships with the communities they serve. Her work is grounded in listening research, audience data, and practical experimentation with real newsrooms, making it one of the most evidence-based and action-oriented programmes in the journalism trust space. Her frameworks and resources, made freely available to journalists and news organisations of all sizes, have been adopted by hundreds of newsrooms across the United States and internationally.

46. Anya Schiffrin

Senior Lecturer | Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs | USA

Anya Schiffrin is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, where she directs the Technology, Media, and Communications specialisation. Her research focuses on the economic sustainability of journalism, the role of development funding in supporting independent media, and the relationship between journalism and democratic governance. She is the editor of "Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Journalism from Around the World" and has co-authored significant work on journalism funding and sustainability with Julie Posetti and others. Her policy-focused research on how governments and foundations can support journalism sustainability is increasingly influential in media funding circles.

47. Suvi Tanner

Editor-in-Chief | Lapin Kansa | Finland

Suvi Tanner has worked as a journalist in Finland for over 20 years, moving through roles at six regional newspapers across four media groups before becoming Editor-in-Chief of Lapin Kansa, the northernmost regional digital and print news media in Finland, in August 2025. She was selected for CUNY's Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership, sponsored by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. The Nordic media market is one of the most important laboratories for digital subscription models and news sustainability in the world, and practitioners like Tanner who are leading newsrooms in that environment offer insights that translate powerfully to other markets navigating the same transition.

48. Philip M. Napoli

James R. Shepley Distinguished Professor of Public Policy | Duke University | USA

Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Duke's Sanford School and Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. He is the principal investigator of the News Measures Research Project, a multi-year initiative focused on assessing the health of local news and information ecosystems. His research on local news viability, algorithmic media systems, and the regulatory frameworks that do or do not support journalism sustainability is among the most policy-relevant media research produced in the United States, and he has published significant papers in 2025 on the political economy of AI governance and the institutional assault on disinformation research.

49. Nabeelah Shabbir

Independent Journalism Educator and Practitioner | UK/Pakistan

Nabeelah Shabbir is a journalist, trainer, and media development practitioner based in the UK with extensive experience supporting journalists and newsrooms in the Global South, particularly across South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Her work sits at the intersection of journalism practice, capacity building, and media development, and she has worked with international organisations to design and deliver journalism training programmes that address the specific challenges facing journalists operating in fragile and complex environments. Her practitioner's perspective on what journalism education needs to look like to serve the full global range of contexts in which journalism is practised provides an important counterpoint to the dominant Western assumptions in much journalism training discourse.

50. Chiniua Wambu

Programme Director | Africa Utopia, South Bank Centre | Nigeria/UK

Chiniua Wambu is a British-Nigerian journalist, broadcaster, and cultural producer who serves as Programme Director for Africa Utopia, the African arts and ideas festival at London's Southbank Centre. His career has spanned documentary film-making, cultural journalism for the BBC, and programming work across institutions that bring African voices and perspectives into the global public conversation. His work is a reminder that media and communications encompasses not just news and PR but the full range of cultural storytelling, and that the most important transformations in how African narratives reach global audiences are happening through cultural institutions as much as newsrooms.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Seven voices were seriously considered for this list and came very close to making the final 50. Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek appear on almost every list like this, and for good reason given their contribution to how we understand communication, storytelling, and organisational behaviour. The editorial choice here was to give that space to other voices who equally deserve to be widely known, rather than repeat names that readers of any communications list will have already encountered many times. Brene Brown's work on vulnerability and trust is foundational to much of what makes communications effective.

Patrick Lencioni's frameworks on team dynamics and organisational dysfunction sit behind some of the most impactful leadership facilitation work being done in communications teams globally.

Among the voices considered but not ultimately included were Katya Gorchinskaya, whose work on AI and information integrity is compelling; Joy Mayer's Trusting News project was considered separately; and Adam Tinworth, whose long-running newsletter and consultancy work on digital publishing strategy has influenced practitioners across the UK and Europe for over a decade.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most consequential mistake communications and media leaders make right now is treating AI as a technology problem rather than a leadership problem. The question is not whether to integrate AI into how you operate. The question is whether your leadership team has done the work to establish principles, build trust with your team, and create the cultural conditions that allow AI integration to serve your mission rather than undermine it.

No tool, however sophisticated, replaces the leadership conversations that have to happen first. Hire Jonno White to facilitate those conversations with your leadership team at jonno@consultclarity.org.

The second most common mistake is confusing following with learning. The 50 people on this list are genuinely worth following on LinkedIn and elsewhere. But following is passive. Learning requires engagement, and engagement requires applying what you encounter to the specific challenges of your organisation.

A third mistake is assuming that the disruption to media and communications is primarily about platforms and technology. It is also, perhaps more fundamentally, about trust. The research is consistent: audiences are not abandoning journalism because the journalism is bad. Many are abandoning it because they have lost confidence in institutions generally, because they feel journalism does not speak to or for them, and because they have found other voices that feel more authentic.

This is a leadership and culture challenge as much as it is a technological one.

A fourth mistake is building communications strategy around the loudest voices rather than the most substantive ones. The most important thinking being done in media and communications right now is often not the most loudly amplified. Developing the discernment to identify the signal in a very noisy field is itself a leadership competency worth cultivating.

A fifth mistake is treating media and communications as disciplines that can be managed separately from leadership culture. The organisations that communicate most effectively are the ones that have done the work of building clear values, strong team trust, and honest internal communication first. Everything external flows from that internal foundation.

For organisations wanting to build that foundation, Jonno White delivers keynotes and facilitation sessions that help leadership teams have the conversations they have been avoiding. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Implementation Guide

If you want to get genuine value from this list, here is a practical framework for doing so.

Start by selecting five or six entries whose work is most relevant to your current challenges. Do not try to follow all 50 simultaneously. The point is not volume. It is developing a genuine relationship with a handful of thinkers whose work consistently generates useful perspective for your specific context.

For each of the five or six you select, find their primary publication channel, whether that is a newsletter, a LinkedIn profile, a podcast, or an institutional publication, and subscribe or follow with the intention of engaging rather than just consuming. Comment on the work that is genuinely useful. Share it with your team. Use it as the starting point for internal conversations about what it means for how you operate.

Set aside time once a month for a media and communications learning review. This is not about consuming more content. It is about reviewing what you have learned, discussing it with colleagues, and identifying one or two implications for decisions you are actually making.

Third, consider which of the voices on this list represent disciplines or geographic perspectives that are systematically underrepresented in your current information diet. The perspectives of Mimi Kalinda on African communications, Cherian George on Asian media freedom, or Seenhau Tham on independent digital journalism in Southeast Asia may provide the kind of perspective that challenges assumptions you do not even know you are making.

Finally, bring your leadership team together to discuss what all of this means for how you are operating. The best thinking in any field becomes useful only when it is converted into conversation.

Jonno White's work is specifically designed to facilitate those conversations, whether in a keynote that reframes how your team thinks about communications and leadership, or in an executive offsite that gives your team the space to think together at a deeper level. Bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast with 230 episodes reaching listeners in 150 countries. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on the basis of three criteria: a substantive contribution to the specific disciplines of media and communications through published research, built organisations, or recognised frameworks; active engagement with the professional community in 2025 and 2026; and a genuine contribution to the geographic and disciplinary breadth that the field actually encompasses globally. The list draws on researchers, practitioners, strategists, advocates, and educators from 15 countries across six categories.

What is the difference between a media thought leader and an influencer?

A media influencer is measured primarily by audience size and platform reach. A media thought leader is measured by whether their ideas advance how the field understands and practises itself. Many influencers have reach but not depth. Many thought leaders have depth but limited reach.

The most valuable voices have both: a substantive body of work and the communication reach to connect it to practitioners who can act on it.

Can I hire someone to facilitate workshops and leadership sessions for my media or communications team?

Yes. Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast. He works with leadership teams inside media organisations, communications agencies, public relations firms, and purpose-driven organisations globally, delivering keynotes, Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, executive team offsites, and leadership coaching. He achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference and works across Australia, the UK, the USA, Singapore, and internationally.

International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

Email Jonno at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why are some well-known names like Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, and Brene Brown not on this list?

These voices are referenced in the Notable Voices section above and have made significant contributions to how organisations think about leadership and communication. The editorial decision was to use the available space to highlight voices that are equally deserving of wide recognition but that do not appear on every list in the field.

Is this list ranked?

No. The 50 people here are grouped by discipline and presented in an order designed to build understanding of the field. No entry is considered more important or valuable than another.

What is the best way to engage with these thought leaders?

LinkedIn is the primary platform where most of these individuals publish and engage. Follow them, read their work, comment thoughtfully on posts that genuinely resonate with you, and where possible share what you learn with your own team. The relationships worth building are the ones grounded in genuine intellectual engagement, not just amplification.

Final Thoughts

The field of media and communications in 2026 is genuinely difficult to navigate. The disruption is real, the pressures are serious, and the stakes for getting it wrong are high. The trust deficit that major research consistently documents is not just a problem for journalism. It is a problem for every organisation that depends on communication to advance its mission.

The 50 people on this list are not the people with the easiest answers. They are the people asking the hardest questions with the most rigour, the most experience, and the most genuine commitment to the field's improvement. Following them will not solve your organisation's communications challenges. But it will equip you with the thinking to approach those challenges at a more sophisticated level.

The work that matters most, though, happens inside your organisation. It happens in the conversations your leadership team has about what you stand for, how you want to communicate, what you will and will not do, and how you hold each other accountable for the commitments you make.

Jonno White's work is specifically focused on helping leadership teams have those conversations. If your organisation is navigating a significant communication challenge, a cultural shift, a strategic transition, or simply the need to build a stronger and more aligned leadership team, reach out.

Email jonno@consultclarity.org or pick up a copy of Step Up or Step Out.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230 episodes reaching listeners in 150 countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000 participating leaders and achieved a 93.75 percent satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements.

Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

Email Jonno at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read

If this list resonated with you, you might find similar value in exploring the voices shaping the public relations profession globally. Check out:

35 Essential Thought Leaders on Public Relations Globally

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