Divina Frau-Meigs


Divina Frau-Meigs is a Moroccan-born sociologist of media and professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris III in France where her areas of research include, cultural diversity, dynamic identities, human/children's rights, internet governance, media education, media matrices, media in English-speaking countries, and risky content. Her research has also included media content and risk behaviors, the reception and use of Information and communications technology, and American studies. She is the chair of "Savoir-devenir in sustainable digital development" for UNESCO and coordinator of "TRANSLIT" for the Agence nationale de la recherche.
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Early life and education

Divina Frau-Meigs was born in Casablanca, Morocco, on 9 June 1959, to Spanish parents.
She graduated from the École normale supérieure de lettres et sciences humaines and received her master's degree from Stanford University. She then taught English at Sorbonne Paris North University, before returning to the U.S. to obtain a second master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1980s, Frau-Meigs was a recipient of a Fulbright, Ministry of Higher Education, and "Lavoisier" scholarships.
Back in France, she taught high school and completed a doctorate in 1993 in information and communication sciences at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, writing a dissertation under the direction of Josette Poinssac on Les flux télévisuels internationaux : figures, systèmes analogiques et transferts culturels. Une analyse comparée des contenus des programmes télévisuels dans neuf pays du monde et du rôle des USA dans la production de ces contenus.

Career and research

In 1993, Frau-Meigs was elected Associate Professor at Paris III. In 1999, she obtained her habilitation to direct research at the Paris III with a dissertation entitled, De la télévision aux sous-cultures de l'écran: la représentation dans tous ses états, aux États-Unis. In 1999, she was promoted to professor at the University of Orléans, before returning to Paris III in 2004. In 2006, she held the information-communication chair at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, giving a doctoral course on cultural diversity in globalization.
Frau-Meigs is a specialist in media, content, and risky behaviors as well as in questions of reception and use of information and communication technologies. She directs a research center, the "Center for Research on the English-Speaking World" in Paris III. She also directs a professional master's degree entitled "Computer Applications: Management, Studies, Multimedia, eLearning" at the same university, with a double specialization: "Distance Learning Engineering" and "Media Literacy Engineering".
The author of more than 300 articles and approximately 30 books, Frau-Meigs has published on issues of cultural diversity and acculturation, as well as on e-learning, digital identity, and internet governance. Her collaborative works have included Les écrans de la violence and Médias et Technologies : L'exemple américain . She has served as co-editor of Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines. She has served as vice-president for international relations of the French Society for Information and Communication Sciences and vice-president of the International Association for Information and Communication Studies and Research . In 2000, she was a founding member of the European Consortium for Communications Research. Frau-Meigs is a member of the Scientific Council of the Inter-Associative Collective "Enfance-Médias" . She sits on the board of the European Communication Research and Education Association .

Awards and honours

Selected works

Écrans de la violence, Economica, 1997
  • Médias et technologies : l’exemple des États-Unis, Ellipses, collection "Universités : anglais", 2001 Médiamorphoses américaines, Economica, 2001 Dossier de l’audiovisuel, number 108, March-April 2003 Jeunes, médias, violences, Economica, 2003 Qui a détourné le 11 septembre ? Journalisme, information et démocratie aux États-Unis, Ina-de Boeck, collection "Médias recherches", 2006 Kit pour l’éducation aux médias à l’usage des enseignants, des parents et des professionnels, Unesco, 2007 Mapping Media Education Policies in the World: Visions, Programmes and Challenges, Unesco, Alliance des civilisations, 2009 Médias et cognition sociale : dépasser les paniques médiatiques, Érès, 2010 Media Matters in the cultural contradictions of the information society. Towards a human rights-based governance, Presses du Conseil de l’Europe, 2010Penser la société de l'écran : dispositifs et usages, Presses Sorbonne nouvelle, collection "Les fondamentaux de la Sorbonne nouvelle", 2011 Socialisation des jeunes et éducation aux médias : du bon usage des contenus et comportements à risque, Érès, collection "Éducation et société", 2011 Faut-il avoir peur des fake news ?, Documentation française, 2019