This paper, on electronic media's potential contribution to rural development in less-industrialized countries, builds on the content of two earlier First Monday papers: "The Impact of Democratic Deficits on Electronic Media in Rural Development" (April 2002) and "Providing Content and Facilitating Social Change: Electronic Media in Rural Development" (February 2000). The former provides a theoretical argumentation on the influence of democratic deficits on the role of E-media in rural development, supported by case material, whereas the latter presents case material from Peru on how the different types of E-media contribute to rural development in that country. This paper also introduced the "information traffic pattern (ITP)" and "media richness" concepts.