<![CDATA[This study aims to examine the extent to which Instagram news coverage influences the political preferences of presidential candidates among students at Syiah Kuala University. As a popular social media platform among the younger generation, Instagram holds significant potential in shaping public opinion through visual and narrative content. The study adopts the agenda-setting theory, which posits that the media has the power to shape which issues are considered important by the public. A descriptive quantitative method was employed to explore the relationship between variables. The validity test results show that all indicators of variables X and Y are valid, with calculated r-values greater than the critical r-table value at a significance level of 0.05. This indicates that Instagram coverage influences students political preferences, thereby supporting McCombs and Shaw's agenda-setting theory. However, the analysis of statement number 12 reveals that a majority of respondents (39.6%) disagreed that social media campaigns significantly influence their voting decisions, while 34.2% agreed, and 26.2% remained neutral. These findings suggest that although social media is capable of shaping public opinion, its influence on individual political decisions remains limited.]]>
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