Biography
Anya Schiffrin is an American former business journalist. Previously, she freelanced and worked as an editor in Istanbul, a stringer for Reuters in Barcelona, a senior financial writer at The Industry Standard in New York, bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires in Amsterdam and Hanoi and a writer for many other publications. She was a former Knight-Bagehot academic fellow in business journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. Schiffrin is an alumna of Reed College, Columbia University School of Journalism, and University of Navarra, Spain, where she achieved a Ph.D. with honors.
In addition to her role in the School of International and Public Affairs, Dr. Schiffrin holds multiple influential roles across various organizations in international journalism and media governance. She is the co-chair of the OSCE Working Group tasked with producing recommendations for governments on press freedom, [2] [3] a director on the U.S. Board of Directors of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, [4] and a member of the Working Group "Information as a Public Good in the Age of Datafication and Artificial Intelligence" for the International Panel on Social Progress (appointed September 2024).
She serves on boards of Reporters Without Borders USA, [5] The GroundTruth Project, [6] Global Board and the advisory board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (formerly named Revenue Watch Institute)., [7] the Global Reporting Centre of the University of British Columbia, [8] Ethosfera.org, and The Trust Project, [9] . She has chaired the board of directors for The New Humanitarian.
Dr. Schiffrin also advises the American Journalism Project and Columbia University Press, while contributing to the Forum on Information and Democracy’s Infodemics Working Group. [10] Additionally, she has contributed to the AI Charter in Media initiative by Reporters Without Borders as a committee member since 2023. [11]
Previously, Dr. Schiffrin served on the Open Society Foundations' journalism program (2016–2023), the Center for Media, Data and Society of Central European University (2013-2019), [12] the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Forum Alpbach (2018–2023), the board of the American Assembly (2016–2019), and the Steering Committee of the Center on Global Energy Policy (2016–2018). She also served on the Advisory Board of Transparentem (2015–2017) and the board of the African journalism NGO, African Sentinel (2013–2015).
In addition, she has been a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford [13] and an expert witness on media freedom issues.
She writes extensively on topics including journalism and development, the impact of technology on journalism, platform regulations and remuneration, media in Africa, and the extractive sector, among other areas. In recent years, her research work with economist Haaris Mateen on why tech giants owe publishers billions of dollars [14] [15] garnered significant attention and recognition. [16]
She is a leading thinker and commentator on AI and publishing, media sustainability as well as mis/disinformation [17] and media impact. Her most recent work includes AI and the future of journalism: an issue brief for stakeholders, [18] part of the UNESCO series World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, The role of journalism promoting democracy and political accountability and sustainable development , co-authored with Joseph E. Stiglitz and Dylan Groves, and Creating National Funds to Support Journalism and Public-Interest Media , co-authored with Brigitte Alfter.
She has edited several notable publications on journalism and media, including Women in the Digital World (Routledge, 2023), Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms, and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press, 2021), African Muckraking: 75 Years of Investigative Journalism from Africa (Jacana Press, 2017), In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy (Center for International Media Assistance, 2017), and Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Reporting from Around the World (New Press 2014).
She is the daughter of the author and publisher André Schiffrin and the sister-in-law of the lawyer Philippe Sands. She was married [19] on October 29, 2004, to Nobel Prize-winning economist and author Joseph E. Stiglitz, who also teaches at Columbia University in New York City.
In 2011, her Reuters columns about the gender balance at Davos attracted international attention. [20] [21]
