Politics on the Internet; from mediatization to digital convergence?

This article presents a theoretical framework to discuss the real scope of Web 2.0 in conventional politics. In order to do so, this article explains Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, but also proposes a state of the art about the use of the new technologies by politicians; empirical reports from different parts of the world prove that political leaders are not using the social media resources to interact and collaborate with Internet users. Finally, this article presents the results of empirical research that assesses the participation of major Mexican political leaders in the social media. Like the politicians of the rest of the world, Mexican ones are not committed to participate in social media. This article is based in a case study made to evaluate the behavior of the Mexican political leaders in Internet; the most important results come from a quantitative analysis of Facebook and Twitter accounts of Mexican politicians.