The Impact of Social Capital and Media Use on the Political Participation of Urban Residents

Abstract

Through an analysis of the data collected by China General Social Survey (CGSS) on urban residents in 2005, this study finds out that the factors of social network and reciprocity that affected social capital are significant positive predictors of political participation within and outside the system in Chinese cities. And it also finds out that the exposure to news in media use is also a significant positive predictor of political participation within and outside the system. However, time for watching television is the only positive predictor for partial political participation within the system. The results reveal that the impact of media use on the political participation of urban residents depends on exposure to news rather than the time of media use. The theoretical contribution of this study is that exposure to news in media use is still a significant positive predictor for the political participation of urban residents, even after controlling the variable of social capital and other factors. This implies that political participation is related to social capital, which stems from interpersonal communication, as well as news use, which stems from mass communication.