Conclusion

So, what have I gathered from my collection of dissatisfaction towards Melbourne?

Through comparing and analyzing the different medium, we can see from different perspectives and witness their impact on the society. One crucial skill I picked up is to always identify the purpose of the specific media.

We can observe how different artefacts, from video clips to advertising images to news articles to films, work to construct specific perceptions (imagined communities) of the city, how liveability in Melbourne is viewed differently by people.

Commonly discussed topics such as violence, public transport, people in Melbourne are depicted differently in each media. We have the advantage of a multi-faceted view on issues, thanks to the variety of medium made available to us now. Each media flows in a circle, having chain effects on each other. New media such as Facebook, Youtube, blogs have gained significance in affecting people and the perceptions towards a city (in this case).

Furthermore, we noticed how different aspects are doing their part, actively trying to create change for Melbourne’s future. Shaping Melbourne’s identity and future is no longer dependent on government authorities, but now lies in the hands of the businesses, universities and even individuals - us.

Ranting can help to reflect how we think, but we should not stop there. Voicing out the dissatisfaction of Melburnians should lead to a change for a better society. Ultimately, it is our future and we are the ones that determine our future.

Official complaint procedure

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutCouncil/ContactUs/Pages/Complaints.aspx

What happens when people are dissatisfied? The most constructive action would be to provide feedback to the city itself through the traditional way: lodge complaints. This is a page on complaint procedure for City of Melbourne, clearly listing how your complaint will be investigated, the time needed, and even stating the privacy protection issue.

As we compare it to Singapore’s, which is not as clear and direct. I had trouble locating where to file a complaint, which I later realized there, was no such section. The nearest I could get was the general feedback page. http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/feedback.html

The general feedback page made no promises regarding time and procedure. “If you have any feedback and suggestions on a particular government policy or issue, you can use the General Feedback Form below and we will help to bring your feedback to the attention of the relevant government agencies, which will reply directly to you.” (eCitizen 2010)

As a visitor or resident, easy navigation to complaint department gives me assurance that I can voice out when things happen. I am quite surprised to realize the absence of complaint procedure for Singapore as I had always thought we focus on importance of transparency.

A clear complaint channel for public strongly affects their perception on the city/country itself. When the city welcomes complaints, it helps to gain trust among people, as they feel that their opinions and views are being valued and taken seriously. How the city respond to complaints is equally important too as it affects consumer choice, similarly to how a consumer chooses a company.

References

Singapore Government 2010, One-stop General Feedback Channel, eCitizen, viewed 9 October 2010, <http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/feedback.html>.

Melbourne City Council 2010, Complaint procedure, City of Melbourne, viewed 9 October 2010, <http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutCouncil/ContactUs/Pages/Complaints.aspx>.

Forum on public transport dissatisfaction

Walking Melbourne

This is an architectural resource for buildings in Melbourne regarding street architecture, city buildings and architects of the past and present. The website has a section of forums on diverse topics; including one under transportation. It consists of news, projects and issues regarding transport in Melbourne. The purpose of the forum is to create “a place to talk about Australian Architecture, Heritage & Planning Issues”. (Walking Melbourne 2010)

Though its main purpose is for Melburnians to discuss among themselves, it also attracts people from other places to compare against their own experiences. First, we have to identify the purpose of forums and their differences with other social media.

Forums unlike website, allows information to be questioned by other users in real time. Very often, responses are active and comments are replied within the same day (sometimes even within seconds). When asked for the main purpose in forums (Webmaster 2010), users stated, “to learn new thing from other as well sharing good information”, “deliver information through constant communication - and that is by posting”. Information is shared among users from different sources, widening the perspectives on the same topic by communicating with different people of nations.

Forums are discussion and information based, which you cannot maintain in other social media such as Facebook or Twitter where updates will bury your old posts. Forum space remain there and it is open for public. You do not need to be the person’s friend before geting access to the information (unless it is a private forum).

The interactivity between users, the rating for their credibility, the instant responses they get from each other are factors why forums are still striving despite the rise of other social mediums.

For further reading, you can check out this following blog about public transport: http://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/

The blogger is truly passionate about public transport and gives extremely detailed and analysis for every moves of public transport. I find it even better than the official Metlink website news section, especially when he writes about his experience with the changes, including photos and even specific statistics. He has an extensive list of links with related blogs, forums, websites, even academics and activists.

References

Parker. P (2010) Homepage. Melbourne on Transit. Weblog [Online] 12th October. Available from: http://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 10/10/10].

Walking Melbourne. 2005, ‘90% of public transport users dissatisfied’, Walking Melbourne, viewed 11 October 2010, <http://www.walkingmelbourne.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658>.

Webmaster 2009, ‘What is the purpose of forum sites?’, Webmaster, viewed 12 October 2010, <http://talk.thewebhostingdir.com/general-chat/26105-what-purpose-forum-sites.html>.

Personal interview at Smith Street

Personal interview at Smith Street

Reflects Melbourne’s alterative kind of livability, which contradicts with how it is depicted by city rankings studies. Through this impromptu interview, I gained a perspective looking from grass root level. My interview subject is my lady boss, Linda, who has migrated over from Vietnam for twenty years.

I had an informal interview with Linda regarding the customer whom we named “Mr. Salute old man”. He is our regular local customer that comes weekly for household grocery shopping. In his wallet, there is always a small handwritten note that records the items purchased from our shop. Every visit, he will pay two dollars to five dollars and then we will cross out the amount paid. Out of curiosity, I asked Linda and she said that he is the only exception. Of course, from business perspective, she cannot allow everyone else such paying methods but she explains that gray areas do exist for people in Smith Street especially. This might not have direct link with my topic, but I find it quite interesting and wanted to share. There are things that Australian government subsidy program and City of Melbourne cannot provide for the disadvantaged such as compassion among its people. Lady boss told me that once in a while, the old man brings in a few fruits to share. Personally, I find this discovery quite comforting. It is good to witness people try their best to accommodate the less fortunate, along with government’s effort. I will discuss more in the next post “MacroMelbourne” on creating a liveable city.

In a forum on Smith Street’s website, a discussion thread regarding a proposed nine-storey shopping mall development was met with various objections. The replies for the question includes “The traders in this strip all cater for low income earners who need the valuable services supplied by the current Smith Street traders” and “I think it's of great concern, and hope the council can recognize what it currently has in this area. It's something money can't buy.” This further shows the importance of Smith Street to its local residents, where further developments are not welcomed, and show the mutual dependency of traders and residents.

References:

Smith, S 2004, Monster Development. SmithStreet blog. Weblog [Online] 16th Aug. Available from: http://www.smithstreet.org/your_view/the_monster_development.php.v[Accessed 08/10/10].

MacroMelbourne

http://www.communityfoundation.org.au/assets/pdf/macromelb_liveable_city.pdf

MacroMelbourne- A Liveable City for all its People

This is a document produced to “address emerging issues around disadvantage in Melbourne”. Its sole purpose is to find ways to contribute to Melbourne being a liveable city for all its citizens. (MacroMelbourne 2007) I totally agree with this purpose and sincerely hope that this would not be lost in the midst of global competition. It proposed ways to become involved in helping to shape the Melbourne’s future, for businesses, organizations and individuals. This is an excellent move to include the disadvantage, being concerned that Melbourne might be divided into two very different cities; “one for the well off and another for the poor.” I believe that this is an issue worth stressing on for Melbourne’s future if it wants an united community. Both plans and actions should be hand in hand with improving its ranking among cities while not neglecting the poor in Melbourne.

Referring to cities-ranking surveys, such as Mercer and Monocle; these studies on rankings and results have been used by cities to attract foreign investors as well as retaining its people. However, this ‘liveability’ is determined by the professionals working for major multinational companies (Casey 2009), not by average Melburnians. Does that mean these studies fail to reflect actual liveability for everyone?

By scraping the surface, it is hard get insights of a city without real accounts from every economic sector of people. Just like how I would not have been able to see from a different perspective if I did not take up the part time job in Smith Street, these surveys can never reflect the actual situation of a city.

Then again, these liveability rankings are designed for use by employers when considering company relocations so it would not be necessary nor practical to dive into everyday lives for an average person. In that case, liveability seems to apply only for well-off people in Melbourne and accurate for you if you belong to the same category.

References

Casey, N 2009, Melbourne Benchmarking and Liveability Report, Melbourne City Council.

Melbourne Community Foundation 2007, MacroMelbourne-A Liveable City for all its People,Melbourne Community Foundation, Melbourne.

Nowell, L & Toy, M 2010, 'Our outer suburbs are poverty traps’, Herald Sun, 18 April, viewed 12 Oct 2010, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/our-outer-suburbs-are-poverty-traps/story-e6frf7kx-1225854963435>.

International Student Safety - Think Before

Video on International Student Safety - Think Before.com

“Some international students in Australia are not aware of the risks in their new environment and the international student safety campaign thinkbefore.com is designed to sharpen safety skills when traveling late at night. Being aware of safety issues will help deliver a positive student experience when studying in Australia.”

This video made by thinkbefore.com student campaign successfully delivered their message in a light-hearted way, prompting us to stay alert when traveling at night. The website helped created imagined communities (Benedict 1983), addressing international students as a whole, letting us know there are many of us out there that are going through the same experiences. When we identify ourselves as international students, we feel a sense of belonging to each other even though we might not have met before.

It is a good way to tell a message while not scaring away potential students with attacks on news reports (the harsh reality). They made the message much easier to be distributed where they offer the video through online, mobile, social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and video sharing websites such as YouTube. Since the video is spread through sharing with our social network, its spread rate is faster and enjoys higher credibility.

When I first came over, I had spent some time researching on Melbourne Studymelbourne.vic. gov.au was one of the website where I read every single page to know as much as I can before stepping into a foreign land. Other than self-research, CMS was another source that provided me information on Melbourne. CMS is an established firm of education consultants in Singapore that provide assistance for students going for overseas degree studies. On second thught, Jim See (my advisor) can be considered as a PR officer for Melbourne at that stage.

An image of Melbourne was constructed in my mind, other than the photos that I saw in Melbourne guidebooks. Jim was confident in the safety standard in Melbourne’s. During the parents’ sections, he told us to be rest assured as Melbourne is relatively quite a safe city to study in. My mother, who is generally skeptical towards consultants/agents, went on to do further research. She read news articles relating to Melbourne, asked her friends’ children for experiences. Not surprisingly, she skipped the tourism books and official websites on Melbourne, assuming that they are all rose tinted. She wanted a realistic and personal accounted view of Melbourne, not images that are being promoted at potential students. (Come to think about it, I think my mother could have easily aced this assignment.)

References

Anderson, B 1983, ‘Introduction’, Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, Courier Companies, Inc., Washington USA, viewed 7 October 2010, .

CMS (2010) Homepage [WWW] CMS Pte Ptd. Available from: http://www.cmsedu.com/ [Accessed 12/10/10].

Melbourne City Council 2007, City of Melbourne Safety Initiatives, media release, Melbourne, 1 July.

STUDY MELBOURNE (2010) Safety [WWW] Melbourne City Council. Available from: http://www.studymelbourne.vic.gov.au/living_in_melbourne/personal-safety [Accessed 08/10/10].

Thinkbefore (2008) Homepage [WWW] Commonwealth. Available from: http://www.thinkbefore.com/ [Accessed 11/10/10].

'Why Melbourne Sucks' blog

by Jac Ramadge

http://jaccerz.com/43

This long and elaborate post on why ‘Why Melbourne Sucks’ proved to be quite an interesting read, where it summarizes the common aspects of dissatisfaction towards Melbourne. The blogger has a lively writing style, generating scenarios in the readers’ mind. Elaborate Transport, drugs, racist issues, weak identity of Melbourne, justice system, even criticizing tourist attractions. Apparently, he felt that he should “cover a lot more areas and dive more deeply into the basis of my dislike towards the city that I reside in.”

Of course this may be just one individual case, but it still represents a Melburnian’s view, nonetheless. If his detailed profile on his blog is genuine, this blogger is a twenty-five year old Australian whose main interests are world affairs, Apart from the “Why Melbourne Sucks” post, he also discusses a varies topics. His bold comments clearly illustrate his personal view on the world and society.

Ramadge is in his prime age yet his comments sounded like someone who has experienced too much and got sick and tired of how the world has changed. Truly, due to globalization/digital age and many other factors, changes occur at such a rapid rate that even those who are born during the time feels left behind at times. Through his complaints, we can strongly sense his disappointment in Melbourne as a whole. Following his post, ninety-three comments rose to share similar views on Melbourne.

The lack of confidence for the future of Melbourne and its people is an alarming piece of information. We are the so-called future pillars of society, what will happen in the future if we don’t even have confidence in it? At the end of the post, Ramadge was mulling over the most suitable definition for Melbourne. Either “Melbourne – the drunk town” or “ Melbourne – violence is just around the corner”.

From here, I want to draw in two other research projects regarding Australian youth; one from the City of Melbourne, the other is a self-initiated project.

1. In 2006, the City of Melbourne engaged the Australian Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne and Australia 21 Ltd, a non-profit, public-interest research company to review civic engagement and young people. The research project aim to gain a better understanding of young people and priovide the opportunity to engage in and learn about local government processes and decision making. http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/CommunityServices/ForYouth/Documents/Civic_Engagement_and_Young_People_Final_Report.pdf

2. OurSay Australia is a new social media website which aims to directly link Australia’s youthful online community with leaders and decision-makers. The fiver founders (consisting students, public servants, consultants and entrepreneurs) initiated a space for discussion, acknowledging and valuing youth’s opinions on Melbourne. I really like this OurSay project; it takes real passion for the society to drive these people, to make constructive feedbacks and actual changes. This way, they are no longer passive viewer when decisions are made that affect them. Being empowered boosts their confidence and entice them to make a difference to Melbourne. http://oursay.org/

References

Eckersley. R, Wierenga. A & Wyn. J 2006, Being young - never better, or getting worse?, Online opinion, viewed 11 October 2010, <http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4329>.

Melbourne City Council 2010, Research about young people, City of Melbourne, viewed 9 October 2010, <http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/CommunityServices/ForYouth/Pages/ResearchAboutYoungPeople.aspx>.

Price, N 2010, ‘Melbourne youth to get a say on politics’, Melbourne Leader, 21 June, viewed 12 June 2009, <http://melbourne-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/youth-to-get-a-say-on-issues/>.

Eckersley. R, Wierenga. A & Wyn. J 2006, Being young - never better, or getting worse?, Online opinion, viewed 11 October 2010, <http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4329>.

Holdsworth. R, Stokes. H, Blanchard, & Mohamed, N 2006, Civic engagement and young people in the city of Melbourne report, Australian Youth Research Centre, Melbourne.