{"id":5902,"date":"2025-12-16T00:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/?p=5902"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:55:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:55:45","slug":"feb-24-soft-capture-in-a-shifting-media-system-evidence-from-japan-with-colin-moreshead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/feb-24-soft-capture-in-a-shifting-media-system-evidence-from-japan-with-colin-moreshead\/","title":{"rendered":"FEB 24 &#8211; &#8216;Soft Capture in a Shifting Media System: Evidence from Japan&#8217; with Colin Moreshead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What role politicians? What role media? Can political elites shape public opinion by influencing the tone of news coverage, even when they cannot dictate what gets covered? This study addresses that question using text analysis of more than five million Japanese news articles from 2004\u20132024, showing that rising negativity in legacy media closely corresponds with declines in cabinet approval. A newly compiled dataset of prime ministers\u2019 daily schedules further reveals that periods of intensified elite engagement with journalists coincide with less negative coverage. Together, these findings suggest that incumbents may still temper media tone through proactive outreach, though this influence appears to weaken in the age of fragmented, digital media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What role politicians? What role media? Can political elites shape public opinion by influencing the tone of news coverage, even when they cannot dictate what gets covered? This study addresses that question using text analysis of more than five million Japanese news articles from 2004\u20132024, showing that rising negativity in legacy media closely corresponds with<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/feb-24-soft-capture-in-a-shifting-media-system-evidence-from-japan-with-colin-moreshead\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":5904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","region-east-asia","region-international","region-japan","research-theme-events"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FEB 24 - &#039;Soft Capture in a Shifting Media System: Evidence from Japan&#039; with Colin Moreshead - UW Center for Japanese Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/feb-24-soft-capture-in-a-shifting-media-system-evidence-from-japan-with-colin-moreshead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FEB 24 - &#039;Soft Capture in a Shifting Media System: Evidence from Japan&#039; with Colin Moreshead - UW Center for Japanese Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What role politicians? What role media? Can political elites shape public opinion by influencing the tone of news coverage, even when they cannot dictate what gets covered? This study addresses that question using text analysis of more than five million Japanese news articles from 2004\u20132024, showing that rising negativity in legacy media closely corresponds with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/feb-24-soft-capture-in-a-shifting-media-system-evidence-from-japan-with-colin-moreshead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UW Center for Japanese Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-16T00:53:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-13T23:55:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/12\/Spotlight_Moreshead.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"504\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen E. 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