The “message” in the (political) battle

Using the mediation of mediatization, political campaigns of American electoral candidates create and attempt to sustain a positive “message” for their candidate and a negative one for their opponent(s). Essentially a biographically projectible ‘brand’, and thus, like brand, potentially engendering suspicion, “message” can seem sometimes to recede in importance, and campaigns work at meta-“message”-ing to deny their own, and to heighten their opponents’, engagement in “message” activity. In the 2008 election cycle the two final presidential candidates both began by seeming to eschew “message,” but it re-emerged in seemingly decisive ways by the conclusion of the electoral cycle.