Syracuse U. launches center to train content creators

Syracuse University is rolling out its new “Center for the Creator Economy,” which looks to train students for the growing content creation business.

The university said the new endeavor will include undergraduate and graduate courses, “mentorship and funding for student ventures,” and research on trends. 

Content creation, or “social commerce,” is expected to be a $2 trillion industry by next year, according to accounting firm Deloitte.

The university’s media relations team did not provide any additional information in response to several inquiries in the past few weeks. The Fix asked for details on new courses, degree offerings, program differences, and planned speakers for the Center for Creator Economy. 

However, several social media experts provided comments on what they say the center should do and how it can be valuable.

Matthew Pittman, the University of Tennessee professor who went viral for “canceling” class for Taylor Swift’s engagement, thinks the program is relevant in this digital age, especially for those at the intersection of business and creativity. He regularly teaches social media strategy, according to his faculty website.

“You can get by if you’re highly skilled in one area, but it helps to have a blend of skills – like points to distribute over creativity,” Pittman told The Fix via an audio message. “In general, you have to have thick skin. You have to be deliberate and disciplined.” 

“Creativity is a muscle, and just like any other muscle, the more you flex it, the stronger you get,” the professor said. “The more you try creating, the easier it is to create.”

The University of Tennessee professor thinks this program will “occupy a nice sweet spot in between disciplines.” 

The creative director for Students for Life of America shared his insights into what he thinks students should learn if they want to work in this field.

“Students should be excited to learn preproduction, filming, postproduction, and distribution,” Kevin Feliciano wrote in an email to The Fix. 

He said these different steps go from deciding what the goal is, the use of tools, such as phones and cameras, and then pushing the product out to an audience. “Billboards, YouTube, TikTok, print, TV Ads, Church screen,” are different venues for distribution, the creative director for the national pro-life group said. “All these platforms require different nuances and I find most video producers who are not ‘content creators’ don’t know how to cater to these different platforms.”

Content should strike a balance between quality and the effect of what is created, Feliciano said.

“We’ve had multiple generations of video producers who are more concerned with the visual of their product but uninterested in how that content influences people,” he said. “While content creation seems to put the audience first and the tools last, there should be a hybrid of equal love for the audience and the tools to make the content the best thing possible.”

While Syracuse University’s program is the first of its kind to focus entirely on this emerging field, other universities have also expanded their academic offerings to cater to the rapidly evolving world of content creation and influencer marketing. 

Schools like Cornell University and Duke University offer courses and seminars around personal branding and content creation. For example, Washington State University offers a “Personal Branding for Athletes, Influencers and Creators” course that is popular among students interested in navigating the world of social media and content creation. 

Several other schools incorporated creator economy topics into their broader communications and media curriculums.

At the University of Alabama, for example, students in “Social Media Storytelling” create content like YouTube vlogs and TikTok livestreams. 

MORE: Lawsuit continues over Illinois ‘minority teachers’ scholarship program