A List of Content Disciplines

Originally published 11 August 2020 on meaningfulcontent.io

What are *all* the disciplines that either plan, support, or deliver content?

I posed this question to the internet (via LinkedIn + Twitter) and, naturally, content professionals showed up with 250+ contributions!

While there could be many ways to organize this list, I see a 3-level classification:

1. Primary content disciplines that focus on methodology, delivery, and evolution of content itself.
2. Secondary content disciplines that create content as a significant byproduct of their work.
3. Tertiary content disciplines that are enabled by content.

I’ve grouped the suggested disciplines together with synonyms and similar functions.

Primary content disciplines

• Content Design
• Content Development
• Content Engineering
• Content Management
  • Content Inventory
  • Content Lead
  • Editorial
• Content Modeling
• Content Operations
  • Content Delivery
• Content Strategy
  • Copywriting
  • Creative Writing
  • Editing
  • Copyediting
  • Proofreaders
  • Peer Reviewers
• Governance
  • Quality Control
  • Audits
• Information Architecture
• Information Design
  • Information Development
• Information Science
• Journalism
• Knowledge Management
• Linguistics
• Localization and Translation
• Poetry
• Social Media Management
• Taxonomy Design
• Technical Communication
  • Documentation
  • Scientific Writing/Medical Writing
  • Technical Writing
  • Technical Editing
  • Technical Illustration
  • User Assistance Development
• UI Design
  • Interface Design
  • Interaction Design
• UX Design
• UX Writing

Secondary content disciplines

• Academia
  • Lecturers
• Brand Management
  • Brand Strategy / Brand Steward
  • Creative Development
  • Editorial
• Community Management
• Content Curation
• Content Marketing
• Conversation Design
• Chatbot Design / Chatbot Developers
• Customer Experience
  • Journey Mapping
• Customer Success
  • Client Relationship Managers
  • Customer Education
• Digital Asset Management
• Instructional Design and Training
  • Courseware / Curriculum Development
  • Customer Education
  • elearning
  • Learning and Development
  • Learning Experience Design
• Information Technology (IT)
• Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Campaign Management
  • Media Planning and Buying
• Needs Analysis
• Patent Docs
• Philosophy
• Public Relations (PR)
  • Corporate Affairs
  • Corporate Communications
• Producer
• Product Development
• Product Management
• Product Marketing
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Go-To-Market
• Project Management
• Proposal Management
• Requirements Engineering
• Research and Development
• Sales Enablement
  • Sales Support
  • Sales/Presales Engineers
• Science
  • Clinical Scientists
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Technical SEO
• Social Listening
• Specifications
  • Standards Organization
• Support
  • Customer Service
  • Technical Support
  • Support Engineers
• Systems Engineering
• Usability
  • Usability Testing
  • User Research
• User Experience
  • User Engagement
  • User Analysis/Research

Tertiary content disciplines

• Aggregators
• Business Strategy
  • Business Development
  • Consumer Insights
  • Digital Analysts
• Compliance
  • Legal
• Contract Management
• Engineering
  • Developers
  • Developer Advocate / Developer Relations
  • Software Development
• Field Service
• Financial Reporting
• History
• HR
• Library Science
  • Archives
• Network and Security Systems
  • Cybersecurity
  • Security
• Process Improvement
• Quality Assurance (QA)
  • Testing
• Sales
  • Bid Writers

Dimensions of content

I’ve organized some suggestions as extra layers or dimensions that can apply to content functions at any level.

Multimedia or format specialties

• Animators / Cartoonists
• Artists
• Audio Production
• Creatives
• Data Visualization
• Graphic Design / Computer Aided Design
• Multimedia / Transmedia Production
• Photography
• Video
  • Film Making / Motion Graphics
  • Videography
  • Video Editor
• Visual Communication

Content lifecycle

• Drafting
• Proofreading / Sub-Editing

Operational functions

• Collaboration
• Data Science / Analytics
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Outputs

• Blogs
• Human Dialogue
• Presentions
• Printing / Publishing
• Web Publishing

Inputs

• Customers!

Does it matter how we organize this list?

My key takeaway from organizing this list actually has nothing to do with how I organized it. What stands out to me is how content disciplines have become embedded across a majority of business functions.

We can unlock valuable opportunities by exploring how particular functions may be more mature with certain methods. What if we took the most successful tactics from each discipline and applied them as cross-functional best practices?