King's College London

 

Digital platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have transformed how creative work is learned, performed and professionalised, giving rise to new educational initiatives and courses that teach aspiring creators media production skills, as well as how to build audiences and brands. This project investigates the emergence of “creator pedagogy”, referring to the educational methods, practices and institutional programmes designed to train individuals for careers within and beyond the social media entertainment industries. Focusing on London, the project examines how formal education initiatives respond to the demands of the creator economy and adjacent creative and cultural industries, and how they intersect with creators’ labour practices and industry skill requirements.

Combining media education and creative industries scholarship, the research will map educational programmes, analyse job advertisements and conduct interviews with creators to explore how content creation is taught, which skills and competencies the industry demands, and how creators use these to build careers. By assessing the overlaps and gaps between institutional training, industry needs and creator practices, the project will identify key challenges and opportunities for creator education. Its findings will inform curriculum design and cultural policy on skills development, professionalisation and sustainable careers in the digital creative industries.