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

Not Really Enough: Foreign Donors and Journalism Training in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda

May 2012

Journalism Practice, Volume 4:3

Anya Schiffrin

In The Media

Technology & Innovation

"We’re in a terrifying moment, one in which it seems that everything we’ve worked to build over decades is being dismantled," writes Anya Schiffrin.

Jun 30 2025
Daily Maverick
Democratic Resilience

Anya Schiffrin, senior lecturer, points out that this is a disruptive time in journalism.

Jun 21 2025
Latvian Public Media
Meet the SIPA Community

Every May, SIPA faculty recommend their best reads of the year, which range from policy tomes to collections of poetry.

May 13 2025
Democratic Resilience

Report for the World and Columbia University (SIPA) have just launched The Path to Impact: Insights from Global Majority Newsrooms, an impact report highlighting the global impact of local journalism in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.

Apr 04 2025
IJF Weekly Roundup
Democratic Resilience

A panel of Columbia SIPA professors discusses investigative journalism in an age of AI, how big tech platforms are destroying the business model for news-gathering around the globe, and the importance of international journalism partnerships.

Mar 11 2025