Well, that's two theories.  

I have a third theory: Trump didn't have a media strategy, and knew he didn't have to have one.  And furthermore, didn't care about it. That's how well he knew the media--at least the TV medium.  Of course he knew it! He proved himself an able manipulator through his long-running TV show, and that experience gave him knowledge (and knowledge=power) that very few politicians have.  

No, the only "strategy" he had was to get down with the people he knew were hurt and angry--and, as we know now, they didn't have to be poor and uneducated. And, to coin two phrases, he said, in effect, "I hear you" and "I feel your pain."  It was so second-nature to the guy that to call it a conscious strategy would be to cheapen it.  Thus, a man who seems so false and fabricated may be, in actuality, one of the most genuine of politicians ever to step before cameras.  Media just went along for the ride.

And whaddya know?  He won.