On the Issue of the Achievability of Conceptual Unity in Teaching the Introductory Courses to Journalism/Mass Communication—The Case of the Higher Educational Institutions and Media Schools in Georgia

At the time when scholars worldwide are studying and analyzing journalism education on a global scale and looking for ways to cross educational concepts and approaches, problems of conceptual unity may arise at the local level, within one country, one educational system and even one teaching course. By conceptual unity, I mean the unity and homogeneity of both the content of the teaching course (relevant literature, actual sources, terminological accuracy) and approaches to learning and teaching. This article studies and analyzes the attitudes to teaching introductory courses to the profession in Georgia on the example of all higher educational institutions in which media schools, journalism faculties, journalism and mass communication departments, etc., have been functioning for many years (more than 5 years), and in which the introductory courses to the profession are one of the important components of the curriculum at the level of bachelor. The number of such media schools in Georgia is 10. Only one media educational institute doesn’t have mandatory introductory course and integrates its content into other profession-related courses. The article is based on the results obtained from 18 in-depth interviews with 8 Heads of Programmes from 8 Georgian universities and 10 professors teaching introductory courses at the same educational institutions (6 of them at the same time occupied both positions, as a Head of Programme and as professor of the course). These programs provide fundamental knowledge on journalism and mass communication to 1055 students. To ensure the validity of the study, questions for in-depth interviews were developed separately for Heads of Programmes and separately for professors with a certain degree of overlapping. This article is not an analysis of all the collected material and data. It focuses on understanding the concept of introduction and on the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the content of syllabi, as well as degree of harmony in terminology. The main finding of the article concerns discrepancies in view regarding aims and results of course from the side of Heads of Programmes and unequal distribution of knowledge on journalism on one hand and communication on another.