ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the history of earned media and its evolution in political communications theory. There are three basic components to earned media: the messenger, the message, and the conveyor of the message through the news media to the public. The chapter examines the news environment of 2012, which formed the backdrop for presidential campaign communications. It also examines how attempts at earning positive media, controlling the message, and setting the news agenda were executed, how successful they were, and what lessons candidates and political professionals can learn for the future. The chapter evaluates the three major phases of the campaign—the Republican primaries, the conventions, and the general election debates—on the success or failure of the earned media strategies, and describes what happens when media coverage is negative. Debates are key moments in campaigns because they are the only ones in which people see the candidates in a comparative setting interacting.
