Who Pays Attention Matters: How Sociodemographics and News Engagement Shape Corporate Confidence in Canada

ABSTRACT This study investigates how news engagement frequency (NEF) and marginalized sociodemographic groups (i.e., visible minorities, woman, age (younger), income (lower), disability, and first‐generation status) influence public confidence in major corporations through weighted hierarchical multiple regression analyses of 26,492 Canadian respondents to the General Social Survey by Statistics Canada. Intersectionality theory guides analysis and interpretation of the results, which indicate the irreducibility of sociodemographic characteristics' influence on corporate confidence. Visible minorities have higher corporate confidence, whereas visible minority women and older visible minorities have less. Use of traditional media and increased corporate confidence is reversed for visible minorities, who show a negative association with both television and newspapers. Overall, NEF negatively influences corporate confidence, particularly when the internet is used for news engagement.