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
“Laws that seem reasonable on paper… can easily be abused.” Anya Schiffrin discusses how countries outside the United States have tried to address the complex problem of misinformation.
It may be time to consider a general industry body that would assist with peer-to-peer learning and fundraising, channel funds from donors, and do capacity building finds a report authored by Anya Schiffrin.
"Facebook does not understand the marketplace of ideas." Joseph Stiglitz Anya Schiffrin argue that self-regulation of the internet and social media will not work.
In her speech delivered at the on-going Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg, Germany, the Director, Media, Technology and Advocacy Specialisation, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Anya Schiffrin, lamented Sowore’s continued detention by the DSS even after reportedly meeting his bail conditions.
Anya Schiffrin discusses how the major impact of fact-checking has not been the building of trust or the suppression of online content or what has been debunked and flagged, but rather, the impact on the profession of journalism.