Please join us for this special panel
co-presented with the
David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation
at the Columbia Journalism School
Opening Remarks
Trisha Bauman
UNA-NYC Board Director
Moderator
Anya Schiffrin
Director of Technology, Media, and Communications
Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs
Panelists
Lena Arkawi
CEO and Founder
Sourceable
Sam Gregory
Executive Director
Witness
Mounir Ibrahim
Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Impact
Truepic
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Wednesday | 7 February 2023 | 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Columbia Journalism School
Pulitzer Hall, The World Room
2950 Broadway at 116th Street
New York, NY 10027
6:00-7:30 p.m. | Panel
7:30-8:30 p.m. | Reception
Registration for this event is now closed
NOTE: Anyone wishing to attend may send a request to Ann Nicol at info@unanyc.org and will be put on a wait list, first-come first-served.
Join us for this special panel which will focus on global reporting on human rights, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, within the evolving landscape of AI and the challenges and opportunities it presents.
Delving into the influence of AI in international media and how the technology can be leveraged for human rights reporting, the panel will address the technology's computational capacities, analytic capabilities, map making, and case making for reports of human rights abuse and documentation. The event aims to bring together leading experts, scholars, practitioners, and students across the disciplines of journalism, AI, and human rights.
Please join us for this timely exchange, a joint presentation of the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation at the Columbia Journalism School and the United Nations Association of New York, when our special guests will include: Lena Arkawi, CEO and Founder of Sourceable, an online platform and mobile application empowering citizen journalists; Sam Gregory, Executive Director of the global human rights organization WITNESS; and Mounir Ibrahim, EVP of Public Affairs and Impact for Truepic, an award winning technology company specializing in image provenance and authenticity. The panel will be moderated by Anya Schiffrin, director of Technology, Media, and Communications at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Opening remarks for this evening will be made by UNA-NYC Board Director Trisha Bauman.
Opening Remarks
Trisha Bauman
Trisha Bauman is Principal and Founder of TJBauman LLC, a NYC sustainability strategy and communications firm specializing in the market opportunities for advancing positive social impact and regenerative development. She teaches on the faculty at Columbia University's Master of Science in Strategic Communication and at Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s M.A. in Sustainable Design. Ms. Bauman is a member of the Governing Board of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), where she served several years as president and vice president, and is invited frequently by organizations, universities, and international conferences to speak on sustainability and ESG impact. She has degrees from Bowdoin College, a B.A., magna cum laude, in Economics and in History, and from Columbia University, an M.S. in Strategic Communication.
Moderator
Anya Schiffrin
Anya Schiffrin is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a lecturer who teaches on global media, innovation and human rights. She 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 on the topic from the University of Navarra. She is the editor of 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 the forthcoming Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press 2020)
Panelists
Lena Arkawi
Lena Arkawi is a Syrian American activist and communications expert in New York. For over a decade, Lena worked with Syrian-focused NGOs to promote gender equality, youth empowerment, and humanitarian assistance. Working at the intersection of public relations and advocacy, Lena created and managed several campaigns to raise awareness and funds for the Syrian crisis.
While working as the Campaign Manager and Spokesperson for the American Relief Coalition for Syria, Lena noticed the challenges that citizen journalists experienced while reporting human rights violations and war crimes in Aleppo, Syria. For the next few years, Lena was dedicated to identifying solutions that would promote justice and accountability for victims.
In 2021, Lena founded Sourceable, an online platform and mobile application empowering citizen journalists to document, verify, archive, and share critical news with media, human rights groups, and NGOs in real-time. Today, Lena is focused on growing Sourceable globally, particularly in areas of conflict and crisis to help shed light on human rights abuses, humanitarian crises, and human-interest stories. Through Sourceable, Lena aims to help the media, journalism, and truth-telling industries with verifiable news in real-time.
Lena received her Master’s in International Affairs with a concentration in Human Rights and specializing in Technology, Media, and Communication from Columbia University in May of 2022.
Sam Gregory
Sam Gregory is an internationally recognized, award-winning human rights advocate and technologist and expert on smartphone witnessing, human rights work using video and technology, deepfakes, media authenticity and generative AI.
He has testified to both Houses of the US Congress on AI and synthetic media, and is a TED speaker on how to prepare better for the threat of deepfakes.
Currently Executive Director of the global human rights organization WITNESS, he has over twenty years experience at the forefront of practices, impact and innovations in video, technology, human rights, civic participation and media.
Sam initiated the first globally focused effort to 'Prepare, Don't Panic' around deepfakes and multimodal generative AI and is widely known and consulted as an advocate, researcher and speaker on deepfakes, Generative AI's promise and perils, innovation in how to understand media authenticity and provenance, and emerging forms of mis/disinformation.
Mounir Ibrahim
Mounir Ibrahim is the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Impact for Truepic, an award-winning technology company specializing in provenance and image authenticity.
From 2009-2017, Mounir was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and a key Syria adviser to various Ambassadors and Presidential Cabinet Members. Mounir served in Damascus, Washington, Istanbul, Bogota, and New York at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
Mounir is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, TEDx speaker, term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and his writing has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, World Economic Forum, and The Hill.
Mounir received his BA in International Relations and Political Science from American University and his MA in International Affairs from Columbia University.