Respect the hustle: Oshawa university launching Content Creator program this fall

Being a ‘content creator always seemed to be more about the hustle than the actual content being created and often elicited eye rolls when it was the answer to the question of what you do.

But times, they are a changing, and there are now an estimated 200 million people involved in the industry, which generates more than $250 billion in revenue, with some projecting that number to double by next year, with brands redirecting billions in advertising dollars toward influencer- and creator-led campaigns.

But while the sector has scaled rapidly, the infrastructure around it hasn’t kept pace, declared Ontario Tech University, which is launching a Master of Social Media Communication program, a first-of-its-kind graduate program in Canada designed to professionalize work in the creator economy and prepare its leaders for the future.

Welcoming its first cohort in September, the program will offer in-person and fully online options, full- or part-time, making it accessible to working professionals stepping into the business and helping existing content creators who are building multi-million-follower audiences without formal business-strategy training.

The program is also designed for social media managers are being pushed into executive roles without a clear understanding of how platforms operate. Careers are increasingly tied to algorithms that determine content visibility, with little transparency or stability.

“The creator economy looks like an industry on the surface, but underneath, it’s still incredibly unstructured,” said Dr. Emilia King, assistant professor with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanity and co-director of the program.

The program is built for the “realities of the industry,” she added, with brand deals remaining highly unequal, with a small percentage of top-tier creators capturing a disproportionate share of revenue, while mid-tier and emerging creators navigate inconsistent pay, opaque negotiations and limited leverage. Creators from marginalized groups also often report less favourable deal terms and fewer opportunities.

At the same time, platforms largely dictate what content gets seen, making success difficult to predict, and influencing what creators choose to produce.

“The Creator MA is about understanding how to build sustainable careers in an environment defined by platforms, data and constant change,” noted program co-director Dr. Zenia Kish.

Students will develop expertise in:

• Content strategy, growth and audience analytics
• Digital storytelling across platforms, including viral storytelling techniques narrative design and cross-platform audience engagement strategies
• Monetization, brand partnerships and campaign execution
• Platform dynamics, algorithms and discoverability
• AI tools, policy, regulation and ethical leadership

“If you don’t understand how the creator economy works, you end up improvising tactics under constantly shifting conditions,” Kish said. “We’re training people to recognize those market dynamics and design durable online businesses that can withstand these pressures.”

Beyond coursework, the program is about building shared knowledge in a field where information is often fragmented.

At the core of the program is a two-semester Capstone project where students launch a real initiative, such as a platform, venture, campaign or policy framework. Each project includes defined goals, public release and measurable outcomes.

“Rather than analyzing the creator economy from the outside, the students are inside it, making decisions, seeing consequences, adjusting in real time,” said King. “That’s where the learning actually happens.”

“We ask questions that people often avoid because they’re inconvenient. Who holds power here? Who is being extracted from? What are your obligations when you have influence? If you don’t engage with those questions, you’re not really leading, you’re just participating.”