Faultlines and Deadlines: Rebuilding Trust in Journalism in the Age of Misinformation
In January 2025, Columbia Global Center Amman hosted Faultlines and Deadlines: Rebuilding Trust in Journalism in the Age of Misinformation. This enriching event featured a keynote address by Jelani Cobb, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School, who offered a nuanced analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing journalism today. Opening remarks were delivered by Wafaa El-Sadr, Executive Vice President for Columbia Global, who also moderated a dynamic Q&A session with the audience.
The twenty-first century media landscape has been defined by a series of overlapping economic, technological and social challenges. The talk explores the roots of those disruptions, their implications for contemporary journalism and explore the roads we may take to a more sustainable future for the field.
With a long-standing focus on journalism - including public events, educational workshops, and practical trainings - Columbia Global Center Amman supports professionals in navigating the complex media landscape while connecting local and global perspectives. Contact us to explore opportunities to partner, collaborate, or participate in our upcoming programs and events. We remain committed to advancing our work together across our key thematic areas.
Speaker Spotlight
Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School
Jelani Cobb joined the Columbia Journalism School faculty in 2016 and became Dean in 2022. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015 and was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary.
Dr. Cobb has a B.A. in English from Howard University and completed his M.A. and doctorate in American History at Rutgers University in 2003.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Executive Vice President for Columbia Global
Wafaa El-Sadr is executive vice president of Columbia Global and an expert in global health and infectious diseases with longstanding experience supporting diverse major health challenges around the world.
She has led large-scale, innovative projects that have had decisive impacts on such pressing global health challenges as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, antimicrobial resistance, non-communicable diseases including cancer, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. El-Sadr received her medical degree from Cairo University, a master’s in public health from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
She is a MacArthur fellow, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Council on Foreign Relations, the African Academy of Sciences, and the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health. She has led numerous research studies and published widely.