Abstract: The influence of digital media on rural life has reconfigured rural social relations; media practices have significantly impacted the rural middle-aged migrant population and their lives, gradually changing villagers’ daily lifestyles. Guided by media practice theory, this paper conducts participatory observation on the media practices of the middle-aged migrant population in L Village, Gansu Province. It analyzes the process through which this group constructs a mediatized rural society and extracts the mechanisms of interaction between media logic and rural social structures that enable the reconfiguration of rural society. The research finds that the media practices of this group can be categorized into three types: private-domain structural, public-domain transactional, and semi-gaze co-constructive. Through these multi-layered practices, the middle-aged migrant population reconfigures the mediatized rural world via an interactive mechanism involving “ritual systems-differential spatiotemporal & imagined communities-bidirectional co-construction-concrete bridging”. It is suggested to further accelerate the development of digital villages to provide foundational conditions for mediatized rural areas, thereby better addressing village “hollowing-out” and achieving the comprehensive revitalization of both people and rural areas.

Key words: digital media, media practice, reconfiguration of rurality, rural middle-aged migrant population