A university in Ireland has introduced first first-ever degree in social media influencing. Southeast Technical University (SETU) in Carlow will offer a three-year bachelor of arts degree in content creation and social media from September 2024.
If interested, candidates can apply for the course starting in November. The course is set to launch in September 2024. The course will be the first of its kind in Ireland, according to BBC News.
The course will cover business skills, video and audio editing, creative writing, and critical and cultural skills.
Dr Eleanor O'Leary, a media and communications lecturer at the university, told RTE: "We saw that there was a growing interest in this area both from students and young people and also from employers. So we went ahead in developing the degree at that point."
Dr O'Leary said that the influencing sector had doubled in global value since 2019, and was now worth between an estimated 14 billion Euro and 16 billion Euro worldwide.
Dr O'Leary said graduates of the course will be equipped to be self-employed as content creators, brand collaborators, and working for a company.
Dr O'Leary further said, "It's an area that has a specific set of skills. It draws on existing media and PR and marketing skills but it's a new area in and of itself as well."
She said the course aims to educate students on how to maintain an audience and how to work with businesses to monetise it.
"As someone who 'stars', creating content at home or by themselves, they may not have any understanding of that whole part of the industry where there are contracts and agencies, and business involved," she said.