The Media Academy continues to work on developing media literacy and enhancing the qualifications of journalists in Georgia. To this end, it is planning to implement new learning programs, seminars, and masterclasses both for fledgling and active media managers, producers and journalists.

Activities of the Media Academy will soon resume in full, having been temporarily suspended due to the pandemic. The Media School will start practical teaching, which forms the basis of the Bavarian Regulatory Authority (BLM) model that the school was founded on. This involves teaching in the real working environment of a newsroom, where the Media School students will be assisted by qualified mentors in various fields.

The Media School will have the latest equipment for the new learning programs. Rookie journalists from all professions will be able to use the new multifunctional editorial office to learn to work on various media platforms, be it the printed, radio, television, or internet media.

The Media School is the main cornerstone of the Media Academy. Each year, it plans to train a new generation of journalists with practical skills and high professional standards. Practical teaching is what differentiates the Media School from other faculties of journalism, where students usually obtain theoretical knowledge and get the opportunity to work in a real environment only after being hired by media organizations that are less focused on their development. In contrast, Media School students can study in a practical environment from the very beginning.

Against the background of the global pandemic and the flood of disinformation, the importance of effective multimedia platforms has been highlighted once again. The Media School will help journalists acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for producing multimedia content. 

The Media School has already trained around 150 media representatives in different fields. It will continue to hold two-day trainings and seminars for journalists on important topics such as the psychology of perception and communication, propaganda and content manipulation mechanisms, audio/visual storytelling, impartiality standards and European experiences of fighting disinformation.

In 2020, during the pandemic, the Media Academy launched its new project – the online masterclass. The first of its kind in the Georgian media space, the online masterclass offered an opportunity all persons with an interest in journalism a unique opportunity to gain knowledge about all aspects of professional journalism free of charge. The Media School continues to work on the project and will soon offer to the public a new set of masterclasses by experienced authors. 

Another significant part of the Media Academy is the Media Lab – a laboratory for start-ups that are trying to create innovative solutions in media, telecommunications, collection, and processing of mega data, artificial intelligence, gaming, virtual reality, and other related fields.

The Media Lab represents a unique new opportunity to create an attractive and viable ecosystem for startups in Georgia, and to implement innovative new products both on the local market and abroad. To this end, the Media Lab offers startups a full range of services: workspace, acceleration and incubation programs, assistance with finding international and local partners and investors, as well as meetings, trainings, workshops and competitions.

The third edition of the startup competition Ideadrome will take place between 21 and 27 November. This is a rapid acceleration program where entrepreneurs not only compete against each other, but also take part in trainings, work with mentors and take the first steps towards the development of their companies. Most startups that took part in the previous edition of Ideadrome were able to obtain funding, create primary products and win various competitions. 

Out of the previous participants of Ideadrome: Side Mission obtained GEL 15,000 in funding from Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA_ for product development. The development of the first version of the game is almost finalized and will soon be available on the market. As part of the GEL 100,000 grant program organized by GITA, the founders of FeedbacKit travelled to Poland to meet international investors and undergo training. The social media platform Bubbler attracted the interest of Arizona State University, which has launched the product in test mode. Additionally, the project received GEL 15,000 in funding from GITA. 

The Media Lab regularly composes educational and informational articles for its audience. The goal of the lab is to develop startup education, attract the interest of as many people as possible and inform them about the global approaches, opportunities, and news. Thus far, around 120 such articles have been published on the Media Lab website and read by more than 100,000 people. The lab’s social media posts have accumulated more than 10 million views. Apart from the ongoing project, the Media Lab will soon launch its online acceleration program, allowing more rookie entrepreneurs to receive appropriate education and develop new skills. 

The Media Academy platform www.mediacritic.ge continues to operate successfully, having already attracted more than a million readers since its launch. Mediacritic.ge is a platform that functions as a guide between the public and the media. Its objective is to enable critical perception of data, which will ultimately allow people to make reasonable and informed choices. 

To help develop the Mediacritic.ge platform, the Media Academy, together with professional journalists and media experts, established its own editorial code, which is based on the following fundamental principles: accuracy of information; impartiality and good faith; public interest and accountability; separation of fact and opinion; balance; inviolability of private life; inadmissibility of discrimination; editorial independence; and trust. 

Having already been online for more than two years, Mediacritic.ge plans to continue its development and meet public demand by offering more interesting, diverse, and topical blogs, reviews, and articles. The platform aims to cooperate with more authors to offer readers more critical, diverse, and interesting opinions. 

Foremost of all, Mediacritic.ge is aimed to act as an educational resource for journalists. To this end, it is important that the blogs, reviews, and articles are written not only on violations and problematic tendencies in the media (propaganda narrative, political manipulation etc.), but also on examples of good journalism – in what way was an article, report, program or interview good or special? What did the presenters or reporters do right? Misinformation and fake news are the greatest challenges faced by our media today, but equally problematic are the incomplete, one-sided, or concealed information, bias, manipulation, unverified sources, mixing facts and opinions, violation of privacy, etc. Mediacritic.ge must respond to all these challenges, and there is a lot of work to be done in this regard. Only then can a media critique platform be constantly beneficial in implementing and developing high professional standards.