The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the job performance expectations of recent journalism graduates as perceived by selected managing editors and journalism educators in Standard Federal Region Six (the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas). The survey instrument consisted primarily of statements dealing with the topics of five research questions on the value of journalism education to success on newspapers, the value of newspaper experience to teaching journalism, the language skills of recent graduates, the value of academic research to the improvement of newspapers, and the "gap" between journalism education and journalism practice.

Media, being a strongly cultural specific phenomenon is always closesly connected to society. The role of a journalist is influenced by the same process. This thesis is focused on the evolution of the journalism profession in a young and unfamiliar Australian environment and it's differences to a European journalstic environment where the profession has been evolving for a much longer period. Journalism was "imported" to the Australian Continent during British colonisation. This diverse evolution of the journalism profession post colonisation has influenced contemporary journalism education at Australian Universities. Analysis of the study curiculums of Six Universities (Three Czech Universities, which represent the academic model for European academic traditons, and three Australian Universities) will show that differences in journalistic education have strongly influenced the preparation of students into the journalism profession. The thesis will aim to show that Australian Universities are strongly oriented toward practicing skills. This will be shown to be in comparrison to the Czech Universities which focus on principles of general academic knowledge and understanding in the wider context of the journalism profession.