10 Best Degrees for Content Creators What to study for a career in internet media

If you’re a creative, motivated person who loves connecting with others, being a content creator can be a fun career. This job consists of creating entertaining or educational material that you share online. It has a lot of flexibility, so content creators can do everything from making marketing material for an ad company to posting funny videos on Tiktok. Though content creation is certainly exciting and engaging, it’s not as easy as it might look. The most successful content creators usually put a lot of thought and effort into their content. If you want to make truly engaging content, you’ll need the skills and knowledge that come from having a college degree.

Which college degree should you pick? This usually depends on the type of content you want to create. You’ll need to carefully consider your goals and current knowledge to find a degree that suits your needs. To help you get started, check out the top 10 degrees for content creators.

1. Marketing

One of the most popular degrees for content creators is a marketing degree. A marketing degree is a type of college degree that focuses on the process of offering goods or services to other people. This degree teaches you how to identify what customers want and create content that speaks to customers’ needs.

Usually, marketing majors are a combination of several different skills. You’ll learn a lot of business administration skills that help you work professionally and manage finances. At the same time, you learn a lot of valuable human psychology. A good marketing degree will help you learn a lot of useful techniques and theories for marketing to others.

Marketing provides plenty of essential skills for content creators. Though it doesn’t teach as much about the practical part of content creation, such as how to film a video, it teaches you very helpful theoretical aspects. With this degree, you can approach any content creation project with ease. Your training will allow you to:

• Identify potential marketing demographics
• Craft content that appeals to your audience
• Clearly communicate the purpose of your content
• Convince your audience to agree with your point of view

This is an excellent general-purpose degree if you aren’t entirely sure what field of content creation you want to go into yet. It can be used for all sorts of industries ranging from gaming to tourism to makeup. Furthermore, this flexible degree allows you to choose the right workplace for your needs. You can use your educational credentials to get a job with an advertising company, or you can use the skills you learn to market yourself on social media.

2. English

If you hope to create a lot of written content, this is an excellent degree to try. An English major is a lot more than just reading books. It teaches students a broad range of reading, writing, and verbal skills. You can expect to graduate from an English program with the ability to use the English language competently and confidently.

The typical English degree focuses on teaching students writing skills. You learn to carefully research and analyze various topics and then write persuasive, interesting papers on these topics. In addition to writing, an English degree also teaches you creative thinking and logic. It’s an excellent degree for when you want to be able to motivate and persuade other people. Many English programs also help students learn about literature, debate, culture, ethics, and other related fields.

All of this training combines to help students create very compelling content. Many English majors go on to become content creators who make blogs, articles, or social media posts. You can also use the skills from this degree to write scripts for videos or plots for webcomics. Any business that hires creators to write content will usually express interest in hiring people with English degrees.

English degrees are particularly useful if you want to focus on a more academic type of content creation. For example, if your plan is to make a podcast analyzing a famous Victorian crime spree, an English degree provides you with a lot of essential skills. When you need to research things thoroughly and present ideas in a professional, well-spoken manner, your English degree will be quite helpful.

3. Film

In the world of online content, videos are one of the most in-demand types of media right now. This makes film degrees an extremely useful option for content creators. A film program trains students in the art of producing a movie. With this degree, you learn technical aspects like how to work with a camera and theoretical aspects like how to make a visually appealing shot. With these skills, you’ll leave college with the ability to make movies from start to finish.

Film majors are quite broad, so many schools will offer courses that let you specialize in certain fields. Some potential specializations that content majors will benefit from exploring are:

• Production: This teaches students things like lighting, sound capture, and editing.
• Film education: This helps people learn how to use filmmaking techniques to educate an audience.
• Directing: This specialization prepares you to take on a management role and oversee an entire film crew.
• Cinematography: This focuses on using cameras and technology to fulfill a creative direction.
• Non-fiction filmmaking: With this specialization, you get training in making documentaries, ads, and other non-fiction films.

There are several different content creator jobs where a film degree is useful. Self-made content creators who make social media content can use film school to help them create professional, visually appealing posts. Content creators who prefer traditional employment can leverage their film degrees to get a position with a company that makes video content. Your degree will help you get hired to make commercials, tutorials, web series, and more.

4. Public Relations

Public relations, or PR for short, is a major that helps content creators better interact with the public. In a public relations program, you learn how communication strategies can shape the public perception of a person or organization.

A PR degree is somewhat similar to a journalism degree. You learn a lot about media production and the creation of written and visual content. Public relations majors also learn about the philosophy and theory behind PR. You learn how to analyze the way the public responds to content and shape your content to evoke certain emotions from your audience. Your classes encourage you to look at the big picture instead of focusing on single pieces of media.

Whether you want to use your PR skills to market yourself as a client or use them for another company, this degree prepares you for some of the most important parts of content creation. A public relations degree allows you to take a look at the industry as a whole and find a content creation strategy that suits long-term goals.

If you want to be in charge of large, ongoing projects, this is the ideal major to pick. With a public relations degree, you can meet with a client, help them decide what their brand image is, and create a content release plan that promotes this brand image. Content creators with a passion for strategy and analysis will find that this degree suits their unique skills.

5. Digital Design

Digital design provides helpful skills for any content creator interested in releasing content online. This degree is an arts degree that focuses on producing media that can be viewed with a computer, smartphone, or tablet. Through this degree, you learn how to make videos, pictures, infographics, and even entire websites.

Digital design programs involve a blend of creative and technical skills. The typical digital design degree will teach you many things, including:

• How to develop and refine concepts
• Which colors, fonts, and shapes are visually appealing
• How to code basic components with HTML and CSS
• Techniques for making easy-to-use interfaces
• How to use Photoshop and other popular programs
• What design principles are used to attract an audience
• How to build a digital design portfolio

Digital design degrees are extremely in-demand at large content creation companies. Businesses are interested in hiring trained digital designers who can help their clients make promotional videos, build exciting apps, or design video game interfaces. If you want a reliable career path with a lot of prospective jobs, a digital design degree is an excellent option.

Don’t forget that you can also use a digital design degree for a freelance career as well. If you get this degree, you don’t have to hire other people to run your website, create your videos, or draw your infographics. Instead, you can handle all these details yourself. Many digital designers create online courses or training programs that they can then market to other people.

6. Journalism

Another useful degree for content creators who focus on written content is journalism. A journalism major trains students in the process of researching, writing, editing, and publishing articles. You learn all about writing content in a professional and interesting way. Some journalism classes focus on writing fun or persuasive articles while others teach you how to write analytical, factual pieces.

Compared to degrees like English, journalism has a more specific focus on research. Your degree will teach you how to fully verify sources and find information to back up even the smallest details in your work. Journalism also trains students on legal matters, so they can avoid issues like libel lawsuits.

Though many people assume journalism is only for those who want to write newspaper articles, it actually has a lot of very interesting applications for content creators. The communication skills you learn from journalism are invaluable. Graduating with a journalism degree means you can write content that clearly communicates ideas to others. Journalism majors often go on to work in advertising and create copy for articles, blogs, or ads.

The technical skills you learn in journalism also come in handy when creating content. The legal and ethical classes you take ensure you don’t fall into pitfalls related to false advertising or libel. With the research skills you learn, you can hunt down interesting stories and discover information that creates fascinating content. Journalists are able to write appealing articles that keep their readers on the edges of their seats.

7. Acting

Do you plan on being the star of every piece of content you create? In this case, acting can be a surprisingly helpful field to study. Also called a theater degree, this program helps students to prepare for a career that involves acting in front of an audience. This major is all about honing your ability to tell a story with your voice, body, and face.

Acting degrees do tend to include a lot of classes where students try different methods of acting and get feedback on their creative technique. However, it also includes a lot of technical skills as well. Students take classes on career development, singing, dancing, script analysis, stage management, and stage design.

All of this training is extremely useful for content creators who want to film themselves in videos. Some content creators use their training to create fictional stories, but even if you are doing something like teaching people how to build DIY furniture, an acting degree can be helpful.

This degree helps to ensure that every moment you spend on camera is compelling and interesting. It allows you to connect with your audience and tell a more intriguing story. Many would-be content creators fail because they have interesting content to share but look stilted and awkward when filmed. An acting degree removes this barrier and helps you be more natural and appealing in your content.

8. Animation

Though animation is a somewhat more specialized degree, it’s very useful for a certain type of content creator. An animation degree is a bachelor’s degree that teaches animation. Most modern animation programs will focus on computer animation and CGI effects, but you’ll also learn some information on hand-drawn animation and stop-motion animation.

This is a highly-technical field. Students learn how to model objects and characters and then animate them to move around. An animation degree teaches how to use a lot of popular animation software, like Maya, and it also trains students in motion capture. In this field of study, you also learn about visual design, sound, and other details of film production.

Animation is a very in-demand degree for content creators. Many companies are shifting to animated content because it ensures they can make material without having to rely on a specific actor to be their spokesperson. Your skills can design all sorts of engaging material, such as:

• Informational videos that show how a medicine works
• Hypothetical scenarios or recreations of crimes and historical events
• Animated stories for children to watch
• Cartoon videos that help to market a product
• Walkthroughs that promote tourism for a popular city

As you can see, this degree comes with a lot of flexibility. Some content creators will spend years working on a big project. Others will work on small designs or individual effects that get inserted into larger pieces of content. You can even use the skills from an animation degree to design and create your own webisodes or YouTube videos. The market for animated content is huge, so creators with excellent technical skills have plenty of incredible opportunities to choose from.

9. Business

Though a business degree might not seem like a relevant choice for content creators, it can be surprisingly useful. Business degrees teach college graduates all the basics for how to manage a business.

With this degree, you learn about financial details such as accounting and budgeting. You’ll discover how to handle legal matters like negotiating deals and creating valid contracts. A business degree even teaches you how to manage other employees or hire services from other companies. This degree can prepare you to start your own company or work in a professional environment.

If you plan on being a freelance or self-employed content creator, this is a very useful degree to consider. A business degree helps you understand the financial side of content creation. For example, a content creator who already has a lot of experience producing videos for TikTok and YouTube can use a business degree to find ways to monetize this career. It ensures you don’t make mistakes such as spending too much on products or agreeing to problematic contracts.

One of the nice things about a business degree is that it’s very flexible. All sorts of content creators can use these skills. Whether you want to sell your video design services to advertising companies or become a makeup influencer, a business degree helps you run your own company. Any content creator who wants to work independently will benefit from this degree.

10. Communication

Content creation is all about communicating with others, so a communications degree is an extremely relevant career choice. A communication degree teaches students how to use all forms of media to share concepts with others. The degree includes things like television, social media, and radio, and it encompasses all forms of communication including advertising, education, and politics.

Since this degree covers such a broad range of topics, you can expect to take part in a variety of different classes. Students usually start with a set of core courses that discuss things like writing, design, public relations, and marketing. Then they move on to specialized courses that teach them about areas of interest like media production, speech and debate, or international communication. You’ll learn about art, design, philosophy, psychology, and more.

A communication degree comes with plenty of different career opportunities to choose from. Employers hiring content creators often look for people with communication degrees. You can use your degree to be everything from a video producer to a social media coordinator. Once you know how to communicate with an audience, it becomes very easy and straightforward to design the right type of content.

Because communication degrees include so many different helpful skills, they’re excellent for content creators who want to be well-rounded. If you don’t have definitive plans for how you want your career to look yet, a communication degree is a great place to start. As you learn more about crafting articles, speeches, videos, and images that communicate with others, you start to get a feel for the types of projects you want to work on.

Which Degree Is Right for You?

All of these degrees can lead to a career in content creation, but as you can see, they’re all vastly different. To find a degree that’s a good fit, think about what you hope to get from the degree. Do you want an all-purpose degree that will help you get hired at several different big companies? Is your goal to learn technical skills you can use to produce content? Do you already have some valuable skills and want a degree that helps you turn these skills into a business?

Asking yourself these sorts of questions can help you choose from many different exciting degrees. It’s also important to consider your own skills and passions. Try to think about the topics that interest you and select a program that sounds intriguing and interesting. When you’re truly motivated to learn a subject, you’ll find that learning how to become a content creator is a lot easier and more enjoyable.