Chapter 3 focuses on media use and political participation in rural areas, along with a comparison to urban data. The chapter primarily utilizes rural data from the 2005 China General Social Survey (CGSS) for research purposes. The findings of this book indicate that, on the one hand, among the variables influencing institutionalized political participation in rural areas, social capital factors have a positive and significant impact, either partially or wholly. For institutionalized political participation, traditional media show positive and significant effects in terms of frequency of use and news attention. However, emerging media like the Internet have a negative and significant impact on institutionalized political participation. On the other hand, in terms of non-institutionalized political participation in rural areas, the frequency of Internet use has a positive and significant impact. The research in this chapter contributes to understanding the status and main influencing factors of political participation in rural China