Anya Schiffrin
Senior Lecturer in Discipline of International and Public Affairs
Personal Details
Focus areas: Media, development, innovation, media in Africa and the extractive sector
Anya Schiffrin is a senior lecturer in the discipline of international and public affairs and faculty co-director of the Technology Policy and Innovation (TPI) concentration at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She previously directed the Technology, Media, and Communications (TMaC) specialization and teaches courses on global media, innovation, and human rights. Dr. Schiffrin writes on journalism and development, investigative reporting in the global south and has published extensively over the last decade on the media in Africa. More recently she has become focused on solutions to the problem of online disinformation, earning her PhD (with honors) on the topic from the University of Navarra. She is the editor of Women in the Digital World, (Routledge, April 2023) Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Reporting from Around the World (New Press, 2014) and African Muckraking: 75 years of Investigative journalism from Africa (Jakana 2017) She is the editor of Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press 2021.) Her research with economist Haaris Mateen on the valuation of news has been cited in the Atlantic, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post and many other publications. She is a leading thinker and commentator on AI and publishing, media sustainability as well as mis/disinformation and media impact.
Education
- PhD with honors, University of Navarra
- MS, Columbia University, School of Journalism
- BA, Reed College
Affiliations
- Natural Resource Governance Initiative
- Global Reporting Center, University of British Columbia
- Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)
- Thomson Reuters Foundation (US)
- Founder, www.journalismtraining.net
- Media & Journalism Research Center, University of Santiago (Spain)
Research And Publications
In The Media
Despite surging demand, shrinking revenues crippled many local newsrooms in 2020, raising the specter of a "media extinction event." Fortunately, promising initiatives that could bolster newsrooms are underway in many countries. Anya Schiffrin writes.
Anya Schiffrin and Kylie Lan Tumiatti MPA '21 explore solutions to sustaining journalism.
Anya Schiffrin and SIPA students Hannah Clifford, Kyle Tumiatti, Allynn McInerney, and Lea Allirajah write about proposals to save journalism after the pandemic.
Research led by Anya Schiffrin maps post-pandemic relief efforts for the news media and shines a light on a proposal from Australia.
Australia is trying to blaze the way on tech regulation with a new code that would require Google and Facebook to pay for the news they circulate online. Joseph Stiglitz and Anya Schiffrin write.