“Content creator” is officially a college major at ASU. That alone is enough to get people talking. But the new Bachelor of Arts in content creation at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is only one part of a much bigger shift happening in downtown Phoenix.
Cronkite is launching nine new undergraduate and graduate degrees this fall, the largest collection of new degree paths the school has introduced since its founding in 1984. The expansion follows a two-year curriculum overhaul that included research, job market analyses and more than 30 listening sessions with alumni, students, industry professionals, faculty and others.
“The media environment has changed, and a leading journalism and mass communication school must change with it,” says Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts Jr.
So, What Exactly Is a Content Creation Degree?
The new content creation program goes far beyond learning how to make something go viral.
Students will learn to develop content across video, podcasts, writing and social media while studying audience growth, analytics, brand voice, visual identity, ethics, copyright and monetization. The program also covers multimedia production, including video, audio, graphic design and editing.
Analytics are part of the mix, too, with students learning how to better understand audiences and measure performance while considering platform choices, partnerships and monetization strategies. Hands-on opportunities can include brand content projects, media internships, content creation trips abroad and the Los Angeles Content Studio.
That makes the degree less “Influencing 101” and more a formal study of the increasingly complicated business of building content and audiences.
Potential career paths stretch from content strategy and digital influence to brand development, social media management and audience engagement.
Journalism Is Still the Backbone
For all the attention around content creation, Cronkite is not replacing its traditional journalism programs.
The school is keeping its existing bachelor’s degrees in journalism, sports journalism, media studies, media literacy, and digital strategy and audience engagement. The four new undergraduate degrees are content creation, science communication, sports strategic communication and strategic communication.
Cronkite is also holding onto the fundamentals that have long shaped journalism education: ethics, resourcefulness, data analysis, clear writing and a commitment to truth. The difference is where those skills can lead now.
“The school bearing Walter Cronkite’s name should carry the best traditions of journalism into the emerging media ecosystem while also teaching the production, audience and entrepreneurial capabilities required to succeed within it,” Batts says.
The overhaul also strengthens undergraduate writing instruction in the age of AI, places more emphasis on electives and certificates, and adds globally minded learning intended to broaden students’ perspectives. Ethics, law, data analysis and research remain part of Cronkite’s degree programs.
Nine New Paths Into Media
The graduate side is expanding, too.
Cronkite’s existing master’s degrees include sports journalism, investigative journalism, strategic communication, narrative and emerging media, and digital strategy and audience engagement.
New graduate degrees are being added in journalism, sports strategic communication, science communication, strategic communication with a health focus, and media research and technology.
Jessica Pucci, Cronkite’s senior associate dean, oversaw the curriculum update.
“The strongest academic programs don’t chase trends, they anticipate them,” Pucci says.
The new programs were shaped with input from media industry leaders and informed by job market analyses looking at where communication careers are growing and changing.
Sports Is a Big Part of the Play
One of those areas is sports communication. The two new sports strategic communication degrees grew out of increased demand for sports-related content across platforms in a $2.3 trillion global sports market. Cronkite alumni are already producing content for athletes, teams, leagues and brands.
Science communication is getting its own undergraduate and graduate degree paths as well.
Pucci points to health care, education, sports, science, nonprofits and government as industries that need people who can find meaningful information, communicate it effectively, build trust with audiences and create measurable impact.
That helps explain the larger strategy behind the overhaul.
Cronkite is not simply adding trendy degree names. It is broadening where journalism and communication skills can lead.
The Creator Is Now Part of the Media Mix
The content creation degree may be the easiest piece of the expansion to turn into a punchline, but its curriculum makes the bigger shift pretty clear. Creators now have to think about storytelling, production, analytics, audience development, branding, ethics, copyright, partnerships and business strategy. Those skills increasingly overlap with journalism, marketing and strategic communication.
Cronkite is betting that students should understand those worlds together rather than treating them as completely separate lanes. There is also a broader point about where communication now happens.
“Universities have a responsibility to prepare students for the world they’re entering, not the world that existed a generation ago,” Pucci says, adding that today those communities include digital communities.
That may be the clearest way to understand what Cronkite is doing. The school is not walking away from journalism. It is carrying journalism’s standards into a media world where the newsroom, the podcast studio, the brand account and the creator feed increasingly sit much closer together.
And yes, one of those paths now comes with a degree called content creation.
Insider Takeaways
- Cronkite is launching nine new undergraduate and graduate degrees this fall, its largest collection of new degree paths since 1984.
- The content creation bachelor’s degree covers video, podcasts, writing, social media, audience analytics, branding, ethics, copyright and monetization.
- Four new undergraduate degrees focus on content creation, science communication, sports strategic communication and strategic communication.
- Five new graduate degrees cover journalism, sports strategic communication, science communication, strategic communication with a health focus, and media research and technology.
- Cronkite’s two-year overhaul included research, job market analyses and more than 30 listening sessions.
- The school is strengthening writing instruction for the AI era while keeping journalism fundamentals such as ethics, data analysis, research and clear writing central to its programs.
Learn more here.
