Former bursary recipient named runner-up in Press Gazette Social Media Journalism Awards

A former Journalism Diversity Fund recipient has been awarded second place in a poll of Press Gazette readers to name their favourite and top five reporters on social media.
Alexandra Rucki, who received a 2010-11 bursary and now works at the London Evening Standard as an online journalist, narrowly missed out on the top spot in the Press Gazette Social Media Journalism Awards after coming runner-up to journalist and author Peter Jukes.

The list of 50 journalists, which recognises how they embrace the use of Twitter and other social media, was compiled from favourites of Press Gazette readers alongside input from an expert panel of judges, whose choices carried extra weight in the selection process.

The judging panel was made up of former BBC journalist and now Google product marketing manager Matt Cooke, Twitter editorial manager Gordon MacMillan, head of Birmingham University’s online journalism MA Paul Bradshaw, digital journalism consultant Jon Bernstein and Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford.

Another previous Journalism Diversity Fund recipient, business journalist Claire French, was also named in the list, whose top ten are listed hierarchically and the remaining 40 in alphabetical order.

Dominic Ponsford concluded: “We could have done a hierarchical top 50 but that felt a bit too arbitrary.

“These are 50 reporters who use social media well and are well worth following.”