This article aims to analyze the different conceptions of content and teaching approaches for introductory courses within the profession in Higher Educational Institutions in Georgia, specializing in the fields of journalism, media, and mass communication. Based on a wide-ranging study of a number of academic sources used in most of the syllabi of introductory courses, interviews were conducted in-depth with 10 professors who lead the introductory courses in 8 Higher Media Schools or Journalism/Mass Communication Departments at Universities in Georgia. The study was driven by the supposition that, following the rapid technological and essentially content-centered development of the fields of journalism and mass communication, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create a unified introductory course for both disciplines as a whole. The main findings of the article raise problematic questions related to the dilemmas of what to teach students in the introductory course: media and democracy or communication as a process and as the construction of meaning?
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