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The goal of this paper is to show the results of the study conducted with the Georgian media employers in order to explore their attitudes toward journalism and mass communication programs graduates. The main hypothesis of research: There is a gap between Georgian journalism schools curricula and the media industry. The main question of research: What knowledge and skills is required by the media industry in the era of digital media and visual storytelling? This research is based on the qualitative approach. A semi-structured interview method is used for this study (n=14). The interviews were conducted with editors, producers and journalists, who have at least five-year experience of working in the media industry and especially in online journalism. This study was carried out from 1^th September 2019 till January 2020. According to the results of this study, the Georgian media labour market is oversaturated with journalists and very rarely new vacancies are announced. Nevertheless, there is a lack of specialists with practical skills in the digital media and multimedia journalism. As revealed by this research, representatives of the media industry face some challenges related to multimedia reporting and confirmed the hypothesis about the gap between the industry and academia. According to the research findings, were identified employers expectations, which knowledge and practical skills should the digital media and storytelling program graduates possess. As a results of this study was defined a set of specific, practical skills, which are necessary to possess for the graduates of the digital media and visual storytelling programs. Based on the results of this applied research, according to the American model (sharing experience of Loyola University, Chicago), a new MA program of digital storytelling and communication will be prepared and implemented in Georgia at IBSU.

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