The Department of Georgian was established at the Georgian Technical University in 1986. It was first called the Chair of the Georgian Language, and since 1989 - the Chair of the Georgian Language and Literature. Until 1993, the chair led the teaching of "General Course of Georgian Language and Literature" and Georgian "Speech Culture" at the University of Georgia.
In 1992, the Humanities-Technical Faculty of GTU was created, the department structurally became part of this faculty, while maintaining the status of a university chair, as it continued to lead the teaching of the general course of "Georgian language and literature" and Georgian "speech culture" at all faculties of GTU. But at the same time, he was assigned the leadership of the newly introduced specialty "Technical Field Journalism" (actually, field-engineering journalism) and the department acquired the profiler status. Since then, the department has been training wide-profile press journalism specialists, who have advanced knowledge of the problems of the engineering and technical fields and are able to create qualified journalistic products. Due to the assignment of a new function, the chair was named the chair of Georgian language, literature and journalism from 1995.
Along with the acquisition of the new status, the material and technical base was strengthened. The department's editorial office and photo laboratory were transferred to the department's structural subordination of the multi-circulation university newspaper - "Agmashenebeli". The editorial office was tasked with conducting the practical training discipline provided by the journalism educational program - "Journalistic Mastery", which included all undergraduate training courses and provided practical completion and completion of theoretical parts of special journalistic subjects and mastery of students. From the first year of undergraduate training, students became correspondents of this newspaper.
Student journalists with the same purpose and volume of academic workload went through a practical master's course in the editorial office of the newspaper "Republic of Georgia", because the basis of the teaching-educational concept of the GTU journalism specialty was and is the simultaneity and intentional inseparability of theoretical and practical training. Seeing their own creative works in the form of printed products was also a powerful motivating factor, which makes students even more serious about their studies.
At the Department of Georgian Language, Literature and Journalism, serious teaching-methodological work was carried out, on the one hand, to perfect the educational concept of the journalism specialty and, accordingly, the curricula, on the other hand, to bring the teaching methods of individual disciplines closer to Western standards. The need to intensify such work was due to fundamental changes in the conceptual vision and understanding of the journalism specialty, the goal of which was:
In this regard, the purposeful work of the department produced serious results. The educational concept, curricula (bachelor's, master's) have been fundamentally changed; The traditional teaching methodology was improved, new study disciplines were introduced: introduction to mass media, news journalism, modern Georgian journalism, foreign journalism, media law (a module that combined subjects: legal space of journalism; investigative journalism; court journalism), broadcast journalism, specifics of television creation, new mass media (a module that combined: politics and mass media; advertising in mass media; economics of mass media, management and advertising market); Journalistic ethics, psychology of journalism, sociology of journalism and others.
Since 1993, student journalists have participated in scientific and technical conferences of students, in the work of the GTU Public Relations Center, as participants in events held by this organization and as accredited correspondents. In addition, they participated in the publication of student newspapers and magazines, and most importantly - from the first year they cooperated with the editors of magazines and newspapers of our country, created and published journalistic products. Many of them became employees of professional magazines and newspapers during their studies. So, there is no problem of employment (providing jobs) of journalism graduates.
Many graduates of the department are already well-known journalists today (Salome Makharadze, Nata Zueva, Giorgi Targamadze, Jaba Khubua, Nata Khorava, Levan Kvatashidze, Tinatin Kenkadze, Nino Tsivtsivadze and others). Nino Chikobava, a graduate of the master's degree in journalism, continued her teaching work at the department, and Turkish citizen Orhan Memish, an excellent graduate of the master's degree in the Georgian language department, currently continues his scientific-pedagogical work in the Republic of Turkey. During his master's training, he prepared and published "Georgian-Turkish and Turkish-Georgian dictionary" under the auspices of Demirel College in 1999 (under the editorship and foreword of Prof. Temur Jagodnishvili), in which 29,000 words are Georgian-Turkish, and 12,000 are Turkish-Georgian. With the wealth of lexical units, there was no analogue of this dictionary in Georgian reality at that time.
During its existence, the department was able to establish Georgian as the state language as an academic discipline in the Georgian Technical University, to teach in the necessary aspect for an engineering educator - "General course of Georgian language and literature" and "Georgian speech culture", and for this purpose, to create a strong teaching methodical base: it was prepared and published Auxiliary Guide "Issues of Georgian speech culture" (two editions, 1998, 2004), reference book on orthography "Issues of Georgian orthography and spelling" (2000), which is distinguished by the completeness of issues of norms of the Georgian literary language (compiled by T. Kikvidze). In addition, it was published: "Methodological instructions and conditions for control writings and homework in Georgian language and literature" (1990). For the first time in Georgia, the textbook "Georgian Oratorical Art" (2000), "Georgian Oratorical Art" (Chrestomatia-practicum, 2000), "Dictionary of Georgian Oratorical Art" (2000) was created and published.
A journalism specialty "customized" to the field of engineering and technical sciences was founded (along with film journalism, sports journalism) and certain traditions were established, which is evidenced by the unceasing and growing interest of students and young people in this specialty. In accordance with modern requirements, the educational concept of the journalism specialty has been improved, curricula and training courses have been substantially changed in terms of more orientation on practical skills. Teaching of new subjects was introduced. Meetings with famous journalists, writers, scientists, and public figures were organized systematically. Students were given discussions with the participation of local and invited experts.
Since 2006, in order to improve and deepen the teaching of translation activities, together with the Department of English Language of GTU, it was planned to create a teaching-scientific center for studying languages.
In the process of ongoing transformations and reorganization at the Georgian Technical University, the Department of Russian Language, Literature and Journalism, as well as the Department of Audio-Visual Directing, was united in one department, which was named "Department of Georgian Language and Media", based on the principle of kinship of specialties.
Soon this department was transformed into the Department of Georgian Philology and Media Technologies (January 25, 2013).
The Department of Georgian Philology and Media Technologies currently leads five educational programs at four educational levels: Azerbaijani-speaking and Armenian-speaking students of Georgia, as well as foreign citizens, are trained in the Georgian language at the B2 level on the basis of the "Educational Program for Training in the Georgian Language" (led by Prof. Temur Jagodnishvili). The program is one year long and covers 60 ECTS. In 2012, the program was accredited by the National Center for the Development of the Quality of Education. The program was last accredited in 2020. Graduates will be awarded certificates of language competence.
The department also conducts three levels of higher education - bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs with the specialization "Mass Communication". The heads of the programs are Assoc. Professors Tamar Malaghuradze (Bachelor's), Gigla Gobechia (Master's) and Professor Temur Jagodnishvili (PhD). All programs were granted state accreditation in 2012-2017. The department also conducts a Russian-language undergraduate program with a specialization in "Journalism" (headed by Associate Professor Tamar Bondarenko).
Academic staff distinguished by high professionalism - full professors, associate professors, assistant professors, teachers - serve to train students in the department. They actively participate in the work of various scientific conferences, symposiums, congresses, publish scientific articles, books, monographs, manuals. The department publishes the scientific journal "Education". Scientific achievements of the department are noted with letters, thanks, certificates. In 2012, full professor Temur Jagodnishvili was awarded the State National Prize of Georgia and the title of laureate for his participation in the creation of a six-language, two-volume dictionary of metallurgy terms; In 2014 - with the Order of Honor, and in 2019, the Union of Teachers named after Yakob Gogebashvili of Georgia presented Yakob Gogebashvili with an anniversary medal and an honorary certificate as an outstanding scientist and public figure.
Other members of the department were also awarded with government awards (professors - B. Imnadze, V. Papaskiri, etc.).