Quinnipiac University’s School of Communications is launching a content creation and influencing minor with a goal to help expand content strategy skills and prepare students to communicate responsibly and effectively.
The minor will be available for the fall 2026 semester.
Content creation is the activity or profession of making digital content such as blogs, videos or podcasts and sharing it on the internet for all to view.
Influencers are driving economies, so the minor will tap into that, according to Senior Associate Dean of Communications Terry Bloom.
“It’s gonna be a combination of some production skills, some content creation, but also strategy and sort of media landscape, media users and media audiences,” Bloom said.
Bloom believes this will be great for the school.
“It’s moving us toward sort of where media is headed, where the audiences are headed and keeping in mind just sort of this continuing evolution to user-generated content and this idea of influencers as opinion makers and this shift in the way we’re advertising versus and marketing to people,” Bloom said.
This minor gives students the opportunity to think about their brand and what they want to bring to the table as an employer, since almost every job in this landscape has some form of content creation.
“Bringing that skill, not only the skill, but the perspective, that understanding of how to tap into an audience is gonna make our students, from all majors, more marketable to their future employers, because they’re gonna bring something unique to the table, having this already to go,” Bloom said. “I think it’s a really smart choice. I think it helps our students be very entrepreneurial in how they approach their careers. So it’s exciting.”
A fundamental course offered is Media Users and Audiences. This will help the students understand who they are and who they are targeting with their content. Another course is a production course, focused on content creation with cell phones instead of big cameras and fancy equipment. The course prioritizes quick and small production.
Electives include topics such as ethics and AI, media innovators, video game communities, communication technologies, celebrity culture, strategies for social media, branding strategies and so on.
The minor will be interdisciplinary and include courses from different departments. The department includes six programs from the School of Communications, plus a partnership with the health science program. This track is specifically for health and wellness influencing.
“That was born out of this desire to really help to try to contain the bad information that’s getting out there. And have some people with some actual expertise giving this kind of health information. And so health sciences was very interested in partnering up on that,” Bloom said. “So students can kind of choose whatever talks to them in there.”
Bloom describes the process as both very cool and enriching, yet also complicated.
“It took a little while to synthesize and sort of bear it out, but it was really gratifying to see how these worlds intertwine and overlap and, you know, what the glue is, that holds them all together and break that out and present it to students. So I’m excited for it,” Boom said.
With word spreading about the upcoming minor, some students have already expressed interest in it, like first-year sports communication major Adriana Cardinal, who has always had a dream for content creation.
“Since I started high school and social media became huge, especially TikTok, I knew I wanted to do something with social media in my future,” Cardinal said.
Her passion for sports communications started with TikTok influencer and ESPN Lifestyle and Content Creator Katie Feeney.
Feeney is a Pennsylvania State University alumna who not only worked in content creation but also sports media with the Penn State Football team.
“The School of Communications brought in Katie Feeney to speak to us, whom I’ve looked up to for a while,” Cardinal said. “With bringing in people like this, in this field and creating this minor I believe alone shows their support for this field of work.”
In the fall, Cardinal plans to double minor in content creation and marketing.
“One of my professors brought it up when we started talking about registration, so in the fall I will be double minoring with my minor already in marketing as well as content creation,” she said. “I’m really excited to see what is in store for this new addition and can’t wait to begin.”
Several other universities offer this minor as well due to the growing trend in media strategy. Some schools include Temple University, Methodist University, Lasell University and Boston University. These universities share the same goals: to emphasize digital storytelling, content strategy, social media analytics and visual production.
