PENGARUH TERPAAN INFORMASI PARTAI SOLIDARITAS INDONESIA (PSI) BARU TERHADAP PERSEPSI MAHASISWA (Studi pada Mahasiswa di Kota Malang)

The rebranding of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (Partai Solidaritas Indonesia/PSI), officially announced during the Party Congress held in Solo, Central Java, on 19–20 July 2025, attracted extensive attention across various communication media. Media coverage of this political rebranding has the potential to influence university students' perceptions, particularly as they represent a segment of young voters who actively consume information through diverse media platforms. This study aims to examine the effect of information exposure regarding the new PSI on the perceptions of university students in Malang City. The study employed a quantitative approach with an explanatory research design and a survey method. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to university students in Malang City selected using a simple random sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, classical assumption tests, simple linear regression, the t-test, and the coefficient of determination (R²). The findings indicate that information exposure has a statistically significant effect on students' perceptions of the new PSI. This is evidenced by a significance value of < 0.001 and a t-value of 18.329, which exceeds the critical t-table value of 1.651. Furthermore, the coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.553 indicates that information exposure explains 55.3% of the variance in students' perceptions, while the remaining 44.7% is influenced by other factors beyond the scope of this study. These findings suggest that higher levels of exposure to media coverage concerning the new PSI are associated with stronger effects on the perceptions formed by university students. This study concludes that information exposure significantly influences university students' perceptions of the new identity of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) in Malang City.