Abstract
There is an uneasy relationship between Czech schools of journalism and media professionals in the Czech Republic for both historical and contemporary reasons. Most students decide to start working while studying in order to obtain further experience in their field.
Some of these students leave their education to pursue full-time employment. Of those students who start work, some return to school with the attitude they know everything better than their colleagues and teachers, often because they are supported by their editors.
On the other hand, both working students and media professionals with employment experience in foreign media more often tend to appreciate the benefits a journalism education offers. Based on interviews with both students of journalism and media professionals, our paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of gaining formal journalism education and tries to suggest ways in which the relationship between Czech journalism education and media professionals could be improved.