Martha Nebab & Riley Callahan / GNP contributors
ECU sees gold in its idea to teach people to be digital content creators. But like the famed California Gold Rush, there are a lot of miners and most go bust.
There are over 200 million content creators worldwide, all competing for their slice of the pie, according to the 2023 Creator Report by Linktree. The Australia-based website is a hub for content creators to network, market their skills and learn new ones.
Out of every 100 creators, nearly 75 earned less than $500 in 2022, the report said. Two in 100 struck it big, earning over $50,000.
Those are just a few of the facts from the Greenville News Project’s months-long search for the gold in the “creator economy.”
GNP interviewed content creators and department heads at universities that ECU says are its peers. It found that in higher education, the field of teaching creator skills isn’t as crowded as the creator field.
Beast of a partnership
In November 2022, East Carolina University announced a partnership with YouTube content creator MrBeast to create a digital content creation micro-credential program. A micro-credential program isn’t a college degree, but it’s a set of short courses that focus on updating your skills or knowledge in a certain area.
A memorandum of agreement between ECU and MrBeast said they will “work together to develop a curriculum to educate learners and entrepreneurs on the business of digital content creation.” Both parties aim to satisfy the “growing demands of the creator economy’s need for a skilled workforce pipeline.”
Both ECU and MrBeast will work exclusively with each other until 2027. Although development of this program was expected to take between six to 12 months, no further updates have been publicly provided since the announcement.
While the partnership seeks to train students to enter the lucrative yet ever-changing industry of content creation, a program of this scale isn’t seen as financially viable for higher education, according to some university officials.
Roadblocks to a course
Schools across the country are still determining whether to add certificates or courses surrounding content creation. For some, it is not even on the radar.
That was the case with Dr. Aimee Miller-Ott, interim director of the School of Communication at Illinois State University. When GNP asked whether her school was moving into digital content creation, she said, “I’m not sure that we are doing what you’re asking… Could you clarify what you mean?”
A search of the course catalogs of ECU’s 11 peer institutions turned up five that offer courses related to digital/social media content creation.
Among them, Central Michigan University’s journalism program offers the most, and the course titles range from “Social media, multimedia and design” to “Social media legal and ethical issues.” Fewer but similar courses are offered in the communication or journalism programs at Washington State University, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and Utah State University.
At ECU there is a “Social media and strategic communication” course in the School of Communication, and a “Social media marketing” course in the College of Business.
Dr. Bruce Pinkleton, dean of the Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, said that both internal and external factors affected WSU’s lack of an overarching content creation program, despite having individual courses on digital content production and promotion.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in overall admission numbers at WSU, and while student interest wasn’t a key factor in the absence of a program, it ultimately came back to finding enough faculty with the time to teach the courses.
“It's unfortunate because, before the pandemic, we were just really screaming upward [in enrollment],” Pinkleton said. “We had a really great track record there. With the way our budget works, a good portion of it is enrollment-driven. When we lose enrollment, we're basically taking a budget cut.”
“We have a hard time hiring faculty to teach [content creation] courses,” Pinkleton said. “It's one of those things that ultimately hurts our ability to offer certificates and credentials.”
Although some universities faced setbacks behind-the-scenes, some skills could be taught without the need for content creation-specific classes.
Emily Winslow, ECU’s social media community manager, took undergraduate classes at the university as a public relations major and public health minor. She learned about social media strategies, news writing, and the basics of Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.
While taking the classes necessary to her major, Winslow indirectly learned the skills she needed to be a content creator.
Although learning a skill set can lead to a quality product, creativity is needed to elevate it.
“I think content creation comes from creativity at the base, so if you have that creative mindset from the beginning, then you're going to do amazing,” Winslow said. “It's not something everybody has that can be taught.”
Scholastic springboard
The title “college content creator” has become increasingly mainstream on platforms like TikTok, where creators like Chi Iheme have found their audience.
Iheme, a junior business administration major at North Carolina A&T State University, said she started content creation as a hobby, mainly posting “college advice” content on TikTok.
“I started back in my freshman year of college, but as time consisted, and especially this year, it became a part-time job,” said Iheme.
In her freshman year, Iheme was a media relations intern for an on-campus organization which allowed her to dip her toes into content creation. “It started with me doing interviews,” she said.
Outside of class, Iheme learned about different video editing styles and camera lenses and applied what she learned from her real-life marketing class to her content.
“Marketing, learning what is popular during the day, what is popular to these brands and companies, has definitely helped me figure out how to use this information to help me expand my platform,” Iheme said.
Iheme also took advantage of a partnership opportunity with audio manufacturer JBL through its “Campus” student ambassador program.
Some of the top-performing creators have affiliate partnerships in which brands pay to promote their products. According to a 2023 survey by Goldman Sachs, 70% of a creator’s income is made through brand deals.
Talent agencies are also starting to recruit content creators like Natalia Hauser, a senior sociology major at Duke University. She is represented by Wasserman, a sports marketing and talent management company.
“Being a student, of course, I had an influx [of partnerships], but what I was really missing was being able to reach out to brands and pitch yourself,” she said. “That's where they've come in and helped me recently.”
As a self-taught creator, Hauser doesn’t see the need to major in a topic as vague as content creation.
“I think that at the end of the day, the reason people succeed in this space is because they are multifaceted individuals,” said Hauser. “They're students, they're corporate employees, they have a little something to them."
“I think that if you end up doing four years of your life just focusing on [content creation], you might actually lose the relatability that people are seeking on the Internet.”
While students such as Hauser and Iheme don’t think a curriculum is needed to teach content creation, the college experience still offers a support system. For Hauser, one of her professors became her mentor and her biggest supporter.
“All of the faculty that I have become close to over the years have been really supportive of me as a sociology major,” she said.
Iheme said at A&T she met other content creators from other HBCUs, namely Howard University and Spelman College.
MrBeast’s partnership with ECU seeks to combine industry connections and networking with specialized courses.
Although some officials in higher education want to implement programs on content creation, creators who are still in college tell prospective students to keep an open mind.
“Do some introspection, decide if sitting in the classroom setting for four more years [after high school] is something you want, and if not, then look at what your options are,” Hauser said.
Iheme adds: “If it's something in your heart that you want to do, do it. Because at the end of the day, you're still young, [and] you still can make mistakes and bounce back from it.”
Nebab and Callahan produced this story for the course, In-depth Reporting Capstone, at the School of Communication, East Carolina University.
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