MEADIAVILLE
Meadiaville
/meadiaville/ adjective
Meadville's youth media makers have a lot to say, so let's listen. This is the Meadiaville Listening Project.
What is Meadiaville?
Meadiaville is a project imagined and executed by Dr. Emily Yochim and a class of 18 Communication Arts students at Allegheny College, located in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Media Consumption 376 began meeting in January of 2016 and students were introduced to the project that Professor Yochim had envisioned. From there, the project took off. The overall goal of the Meadiaville Listening Project is to expose youth media makers in the Meadville area and to understand the circumstances that these youth are situated in while producing their media. As a class, we wanted to create a space where Meadville media makers could go to collaborate, learn, and explore other media makers in the area as well as to create an outlet that would help these young creative minds be heard by their community. Over the course of 14 weeks we conducted interviews, created a website, produced four podcasts, published several ethnographic research analyses rooted in communication arts theory, and developed personal relationships with Meadville community members. What started out as a class turned into something very meaningful and gratifying. As a class, we hope our work continues to be looked at and utilized in northwestern Pennsylvania. Please check out all of the wonderful media makers we worked with, and use this website and its content to nurture the creativity of media makers in your area.
Where is Meadville?
Meadville, located in northwestern Pennsylvania, is a town rich with stories of success woven into its extensive history. Just a hundred years ago, Meadville was booming with the manufacturing industry acting as the backbone of the town. The emergence of the zipper gave the town the extra push to bring in more companies, ultimately supplying jobs to a majority of the Meadville community. For several decades, Meadville thrived as a town, even escaping the the downfall of the Great Depression. It was not until the more recent economic recessions, both in the 1980’s and again in 2008, that Meadville felt an economic blow. The spread of globalization led to the relocation of many of the once successful companies, leaving many residents with little options as far places to work. In a town that is still struggling to get back on its feet, youth media makers may not always feel as though Meadville is the right place to create media. Many of the people we talked to only know Meadville as a town that is struggling, rather than a town full of possibilities. However, Meadville still has a spark of perseverance, and that is something that this town will never lose. It is this same perseverance and fierce determination that compels our youth media makers to do what they truly love to do.
Who Are The Artists?
All of the media makers featured in our ethnographic research are from the Meadville, PA area. Dr. Emily Yochim initially assigned each member of our class to a specific media maker to interview, and from there, our network of artists grew. What started as 18 artists developed into over 50 contacts throughout the course of our class. As we began our interviews with our original interviewees, we began to realize how interconnected the media makers in Meadville area were. We began collecting a wider range of ages, media contributions, areas, and demographics. We ended up gaining contacts in Erie, Pittsburgh, and many other surrounding areas. However, our main focus remained on the Meadville media makers. Many students developed relationships with the members of the Meadville community who contributed, and ended up staying in contact with them throughout the evolution of the project in order to keep them involved. This project is for all of those who make media in Meadville and in surrounding areas.