Jean Noël Jeanneney

French historian and politician. He is the son of Jean-Marcel Jeanneney and the grandson of Jules Jeanneney, both important figures in French politics.

Jeanneney specialized in media history, an area which he helped pioneer. He took interest in the evolution of print media (newspapers and periodicals), of radio, and of television. He taught at the University of Paris X: Nanterre until 1977. He was also named maître de conférences, and then, in 1979, professeur des universitésat the IEP. It was there that he oversaw research on the history of the press.

Jeanneney subsequently changed his focus, from external study to actual participation in mass media. Specifically, he was president and general manager of Radio France from 1982 to 1986 and afterwards worked in television, in particular for a history channel on cable television.

From 2002 to 2007, Jeanneney has been president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In this capacity, he has been noted for his opposition to Google Book Search. Since making his objections known, he has been looking to develop a European digitization program to be run by governmental authorities.