The Influence of Social Media X as a Source of Presidential Candidate Information on the Voting Decisions of Communication Science Students at Universitas Indonesia in the 2024 Election

Abstract

Indonesia's 2024 General Election was marked by the significant role of social media, particularly the X platform (formerly Twitter), as a source of political information for young voters. This study aims to quantitatively analyze the influence of using social media X as a source of information on the voting decisions of Communication Science students from the class of 2022 at Universitas Indonesia during the 2024 Election. Using a quantitative approach and simple linear regression, the study involved 65 students as a sample chosen through a purposive sampling technique from a total population of 182 students. Data were collected via a Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 27.0. The results show a positive and significant influence between the use of social media X and students' voting decisions (t-count 5.652 > t-table 1.660; p < 0.05). However, the coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.198 indicates that the social media X variable only contributes 19.8% to voting decisions, while the remaining 80.2% is influenced by other factors outside the research model. The conclusion of this study is that social media X is a significant, though not dominant, factor in shaping students' political decisions, which aligns with the Theory of Uses and Gratifications.