Major U.S. University to Offer Degree in Content Creation

The so-called “influencer economy” continues its meteoric rise, and prestigious academic institutions are starting to take notice. With ginormous online platforms like OnlyFans and Meta worth about $4.7 billion and $1.51 trillion respectively, one university is getting creative and adding a program we might start to see at other schools across the country. 

Starting this October, students at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona will be eligible to major in content creation. According to the Arizona State website, students with a degree in content creation will be taught to “plan, produce and grow content across platforms like video, podcasts and social media.” In contrast to the university’s digital marketing degree, where students learn to market for other brands, the content creation degree focuses on “building and monetizing [the student’s] personal brand”, the degree is the first of its kind in higher education. 

Known by some as “the influencer degree”, the curriculum includes a wide variety of classes that wouldn’t look out of place in a standard communications or journalism degree. Business classes, copyright law, analytics, media writing and ethics are just some of the courses included in this degree. 

Proponents say it’s easy to mischaracterize the program as something it’s not. Nicole Ramirez, founder of NR Digital Consulting says the content creation degree is just a revamped communication degree. “The program is not teaching twenty-year-olds how to go viral. The goal is teaching them how to operate in a media environment where every organization is now a publisher,” Ramirez writes. She adds, “These are the bones of a communications or journalism degree, updated for the places communication now happens.” Vincent Orleck, a content creator and Arizona State alumni, says people are missing the point. “The ‘creator economy’ makes people think the goal is to become an influencer,” he said, adding, “It’s not about creating more content, it’s about creating something worth paying attention to. If that’s what this degree teaches, then it’s preparing students for far more than a career as a creator.”

The data explains why the degree is so important. According to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Harvard Business School, in 2020, just 200,000 full-time digital content creation jobs existed in the states. In 2024, that number exploded to 1.5 million. The money is there, too. Arizona State University estimates the current so-called “creator economy” is worth $500 billion, anticipating that number to grow at a steady 23% clip for the next four years. 

Arizona State isn’t the only big university dipping its toes into the online content creator industry. On the other side of the country, Syracuse University is offering a new minor, with similar aims to the Arizona State program: preparing students for “digital entrepreneurship” careers. Syracuse recently opened up its Center for the Creator Economy, naming experienced industry executive Ryan Schram as inaugural director of the program.

As the global economy tilts towards digital media and content creation, we’re likely to see even more colleges and universities developing similar programs to Arizona State’s. Ramirez articulates this, saying, “Whether someone becomes an engineer, a nonprofit leader, a physician, or a marketer, the ability to communicate ideas, build trust, and earn attention online is moving from an advantage toward a baseline expectation.” Adding, “It is not hard to imagine communications coursework migrating into degree programs where it does not currently exist, the way writing and data literacy already have.” 

Platforms like OnlyFans, Instagram and TikTok have been at the center of the content creation industry boom for a while, so it’s about time that large academic institutions take notice. Whether you think of it as “the influencer degree” or an updated communications degree, the creator economy will meet the first graduates of this exciting new program in 2030. 

The degree is available to in person students and online students.