Anya Schiffrin

Anya Schiffrin

Senior Lecturer in Discipline of International and Public Affairs

Anya Schiffrin

International Affairs Building, Room 1319

212-854-7188


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.

Feb 09 2021
Project Syndicate

Anya Schiffrin and Kylie Lan Tumiatti MPA '21 explore solutions to sustaining journalism.

Jan 12 2021
Global Investigative Journalism Network

Anya Schiffrin and SIPA students Hannah Clifford, Kyle Tumiatti, Allynn McInerney, and Lea Allirajah write about proposals to save journalism after the pandemic.

Jan 12 2021
Columbia Journalism Review

Research led by Anya Schiffrin maps post-pandemic relief efforts for the news media and shines a light on a proposal from Australia.

Jan 10 2021
Columbia News

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.

Dec 01 2020
Financial Times