New laptops, new mobile phones, and unlimited Internet access’: the new media usage among Indonesian students

This paper describes Indonesian students’ use of the Internet and their new media ownerships before and after coming to Australia. Furthermore, it shows how the differences in access and facilities in their previous lives in Indonesia and their more recent circumstances in Australia contribute to their new media usage. This study focuses on Indonesian students in Australian universities because of two specific reasons. First, the penetration of the Internet users in Indonesia is 8% while in Australia is 70.2%. Second, previous studies find that young people are the majority of the Internet users and most students access the Internet for communication and entertainment. Therefore, this paper emphasizes on the students’ usage of the Internet related to their academic activities. Some preliminary findings of this research project are included in the presentation and they provide a better understanding of Indonesian students’ lives in Australia.