Sevanti Ninan is an Indian journalist, columnist, researcher and media critic.^[1][2][3] She is the founding editor of The Hoot, which was the first media watchdog in India.^[4] Ninan was the recipient of the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons in 1989,^[5] and is a visiting scholar (fellowship) at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, an academic center associated with the University of Pennsylvania.^[6]

Nivan began her career in journalism at the Hindustan Times and subsequently became a correspondent and later an editor with The Indian Express.^[6] She is also the author of the book, Headlines from the Heartland which is described as the first in-depth study into the growth of the expanding Hindi language newspaper industry in India.^[7][8]

In 2001, she founded The Hoot as a media watchdog which was re-configured into an archive and media research resource around 2018.^[4] Ninan is a regular columnist at The Telegraph and has formerly been a columnist at several major newspapers including The Hindu, The Indian Express and Mint, the financial newspaper founded by The Wall Street Journal and Hindustan Times.^[9]

• Rajasthan (1980) Roli Books. ISBN 978-1-87-046143-6.
• Through the Magic Window: Television and Change in India (1995) Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-025631-4.
• Plain Speaking with Chandrababu Naidu (2000) Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-67-089244-0.
• Headlines from the Heartland: Reinventing the Hindi Public Sphere (2007) SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-93-5280-059-9.