Author of the course: Prof. Mariam Gersamia (media psychologist, body-oriented psychotherapist)

Trainers: TSU Professor Mariam Gersamia (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences) and TSU Associate Professor Maia Toradze (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences)

The course is designed for:

• Journalists, producers, editors, analysts and others engaged in the media sector
• Specialists in Public Relations
• Specialists (media analysts) employed in the non-governmental sector
• Students in the social and political sciences, law, humanities, psychology and education
• Persons interested in studying psychological effects of the media

The goal of the course is to permit graduates of media psychology to acquire the basic knowledge (101) and practical skills that can be used in media activities and planning media relations. This will enable graduates of the course to make critical analyses of the psychological effects of media, become more aware of the negative impacts of technologies, and to raise the level of their media literacy.

Students will acquire information and skills in the areas of

• media psychology;
• the impact of media and technologies on human behavior;
• how to identify and manage the (positive and negative) effects of media;
• media ecology, i.e. how to cover negative news (crime, violence, natural cataclysms, etc.) and what to offer viewers to reduce negative psychological impact;
• management of the public’s negative emotions to promote empathy and sympathy;
• image creation: the psychological portrayal of public figures in news coverage;
• story-telling to produce a positive public mood; establishing a positive psychology in the media;
• how media-influencing algorithms are created;
• analyzing the attraction of games, series and their characters;
• how media products such as children’s programs, video games, animations containing violence affect children;
• types of psychological manipulation observed when covering election crises;
• the implications of covering psychological issues in the media.

Participation in the sessions includes the use of techniques of body-oriented psychotherapy.

Duration: 40 hours

Course fee: GEL 370; for TSU students – GEL 310.

A TSU Certificate will be awarded upon completion of the course, and interested persons can be admitted to the next level of Media Psychology.

Contact information: TSU Center for Lifelong Learning (I. Chavchavadze Ave., 1), telephone: 2250484 (internal phone number 1465 or 1466); mobile:  5 77 171107.  

If necessary, the Center reserves the right to cancel or modify the beginning date of the course. Students already registered will be informed immediately of any modifications.