Amy Gonzales
Biographic Data
| ID | 4266576 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amy Gonzales |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amy |
| FAMILY NAME | Gonzales |
| SIGNATURE | GONZALES A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 100 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Technology-mediated communication among migrant families separated by borders: Understanding the tensions of relational maintenance
This study examined how highly under-resourced Latina/o/x/e families used technologically mediated communication to maintain their relationship when experiencing migration-based family separation. Drawing on relational maintenance literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 family triads, each including a father, mother, and child (children between 9 and 17 years old). The findings extend past research on relational maintenance …
Young women’s perceptions of cooperative privacy threats through the lens of abortion in the United States
Privacy scholars have posited that institutional privacy threats arouse more uncertainty than social privacy threats, though research examining different types of privacy threats side-by-side is limited. This research uses the repeal of federal protection for abortion in the United States as a case study to explore reactions to these different threats. Moreover, by separately considering corporations and the state, we inductively examine beliefs …
First-level fundamentals: Computer ownership is more important for internet benefits than in-home internet service
Although computers, smartphones, and internet service are essential 21st century tools, digital equity stakeholders often focus on in-home internet service in their advocacy. Yet few scholars have compared the associated benefits of different fundamental digital resources. In response, a cross-sectional analysis of two waves of U.S. census data (2020, N = 84,206; 2023, N = 82,941) revealed that computer use (laptop/desktop) was consistently a str…
When we tolerate online incivility: Dual-Process Effects of Argument Strength and Heuristic Cues in Uncivil User Comments
Making stability dependable: Stable cellphone access leads to better health outcomes for those experiencing poverty
The technology maintenance framework argues that digital access is unreliable and thus consequential for individual/social welfare. However, no one has demonstrated a causal effect of cell phone access on health and well-being. Using a 7-month longitudinal field experiment we investigated how stable cellphone access impacts health and quality of life of people experiencing poverty (N = 45, median annual income = $7,216). Participants received pho…
You got a hole in your belly and a phone in your hand: How US government phone subsidies shape the search for employment
Many of the tasks involved in looking for a job these days involve sharing and storing digital data. Digital technology is now required for job seekers to research employers, store resumes, complete applications, and schedule interviews. What is the employment process for people who are living on the poverty line, without reliable access to the Internet or mobile phones? We focus on technology maintenance, the continuous work required to stay dig…
If They Only Disrespect Us a Little, and the Story is Interesting, I Keep Watching: Navigation of Ethnic Media Gratifications by Latino Teens
The goal of this study was to apply insights from social identity gratifications and ethnic/racial identity development frameworks to better understand how adolescents perceive, select, and avoid media content which has the potential to damage self-and group-concept. We conducted focus groups with 32 Latino adolescents aged 13 to 15. We found mixed evidence that youth prioritized the ethnicity of characters in program selection. Most referenced p…
An Explication of Identity Shift Theory: Getting Our Shift Together
First articulated in 2008, the concept of identity shift refers to the process of self-transformation that is the result of intentional self-presentation in a mediated context. As research into identity shift has become increasingly prevalent, our understanding of the concept’s mechanisms and constraints has become more detailed and in depth. We now have a greater understanding of the process and limitations of identity shift: an understanding su…
Introduction: Marginality and Social Media
This special issue brings together 13 manuscripts and two practitioner responses that speak to the intersection of marginality and social media in a variety of contexts. Readers of Social Media + Society certainly know what social media are, but marginality may be more elusive. We introduce this special issue by noting the historical moment for studying marginality, providing a working definition of that concept, and highlighting how this special…
The Digital Street
A Critical Approach to Investigating Communication Practices of Marginalized Populations Using Longitudinal Field Experiments
Research on information and communication technologies conducted with a vulnerable sample consists of a unique host of challenges not experienced in research with oft-used student samples. This article suggests that field experiments, conducted through a self-reflexive critical studies lens, are one way that communication researchers may address some of these barriers while keeping in mind sensitivity to inherent power imbalances. While consideri…
The contemporary US digital divide: From initial access to technology maintenance
As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supporting technology maintenance theory. Technology maintenance theory argues that although most of the US poor now u…
Improving Health in Low-Income Communities With Group Texting: Improving Health With Group Text
Journal Article Improving Health in Low-Income Communities with Group Texting Get access Amy L. Gonzales Amy L. Gonzales 1Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 66, Issue 1, February 2016, Pages 82–101, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12195 Published: 20 November 2015
Public Cellphone Use Does Not Activate Negative Responses in Others…Unless They Hate Cellphones: Cellphone Ostracism
Ostracism dramatically reduces psychosocial well-being. Many studies have examined ostracism within digital environments, but to our knowledge no one has examined ostracism as manifested through public cellphone use. Experimental data revealed that public texting or reading on a cellphone was less ostracizing to copresent others than face-to-face ostracism but more ostracizing than face-to-face inclusion. Though cellphone use was somewhat ostraci…
Better everyone should know our business than we lose our house”: Costs and benefits of medical crowdfunding for support, privacy, and identity
In the United States, medical crowdfunding is an increasingly common response to overwhelming healthcare costs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals crowdfunding for health (e.g. cancer, paralysis, brain injury) on behalf of themselves or others, to better understand this new phenomenon as it informs theory on social support, identity, and privacy. First, findings suggest that crowdfunding is often a resource for both ins…
Subculture-centered public health communication: A social media strategy
Social media use by health practitioners helps articulate a subculture-centered approach to public health communication. This article explores public health practitioners’ communication strategies with one subculture: young (18- to 29-year-old) men who have sex with men (MSM). Interviews with staff at a public health clinic reveal the use of a variety of social media systems to engage potential MSM clients (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Grin…
Health benefits and barriers to cell phone use in low-income urban U.S. neighborhoods: Indications of technology maintenance
Little is known about the everyday health and safety benefits of cell phones for the U.S. poor, despite heightened risks of illness and exposure to crime for this population. Interviews with low-income, urban U.S. residents reveal that cell phones are an asset for psychological reassurance, crime prevention, and critical access to emergency help. At the same time findings reveal that these residents often have broken and disconnected cell phones …
Cell phone disconnection disrupts access to healthcare and health resources: A technology maintenance perspective
Over 50% of people in poverty in the United States no longer have a landline telephone, and this same population is more likely to have a no-contract cell phone plan requiring the continuous purchase of minutes. As a result, the poor may increasingly experience short-term phonelessness, which may disrupt access to healthcare and other services. To explore this we conducted 37 client interviews and 7 staff interviews at two free health clinics. Ce…
Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media: Communication About Health Disparities
Journal Article Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media Get access Jeff Niederdeppe, Jeff Niederdeppe 1Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Cabral A. Bigman, Cabral A. Bigman 2Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Go…
Caring for Mobile Phone-Based Virtual Pets can Influence Youth Eating Behaviors
This study tests the effects of feedback from a virtual pet on behavior change. A randomized field experiment with 39 adolescents in the US examined how a mobile phone game influenced their likelihood to eat breakfast. Manipulations included varying positive and negative visual feedback in response to participants' photos of breakfast meals. Results indicate that participants with a virtual pet that provided both positive and negative feedback we…
Language Style Matching as a Predictor of Social Dynamics in Small Groups
Synchronized verbal behavior can reveal important information about social dynamics. This study introduces the linguistic style matching (LSM) algorithm for calculating verbal mimicry based on an automated textual analysis of function words. The LSM algorithm was applied to language generated during a small group discussion in which 70 groups comprised of 324 individuals engaged in an information search task either face-to-face or via text-based …
Language Style Matching as a Predictor of Social Dynamics in Small Groups
Synchronized verbal behavior can reveal important information about social dynamics. This study introduces the linguistic style matching (LSM) algorithm for calculating verbal mimicry based on an automated textual analysis of function words. The LSM algorithm was applied to language generated during a small group discussion in which 70 groups comprised of 324 individuals engaged in an information search task either face-to-face or via text-based …
Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media: Communication About Health Disparities
Journal Article Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media Get access Jeff Niederdeppe, Jeff Niederdeppe 1Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Cabral A. Bigman, Cabral A. Bigman 2Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Go…
An Explication of Identity Shift Theory: Getting Our Shift Together
First articulated in 2008, the concept of identity shift refers to the process of self-transformation that is the result of intentional self-presentation in a mediated context. As research into identity shift has become increasingly prevalent, our understanding of the concept’s mechanisms and constraints has become more detailed and in depth. We now have a greater understanding of the process and limitations of identity shift: an understanding su…
Better everyone should know our business than we lose our house”: Costs and benefits of medical crowdfunding for support, privacy, and identity
In the United States, medical crowdfunding is an increasingly common response to overwhelming healthcare costs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals crowdfunding for health (e.g. cancer, paralysis, brain injury) on behalf of themselves or others, to better understand this new phenomenon as it informs theory on social support, identity, and privacy. First, findings suggest that crowdfunding is often a resource for both ins…
Cell phone disconnection disrupts access to healthcare and health resources: A technology maintenance perspective
Over 50% of people in poverty in the United States no longer have a landline telephone, and this same population is more likely to have a no-contract cell phone plan requiring the continuous purchase of minutes. As a result, the poor may increasingly experience short-term phonelessness, which may disrupt access to healthcare and other services. To explore this we conducted 37 client interviews and 7 staff interviews at two free health clinics. Ce…
Subculture-centered public health communication: A social media strategy
Social media use by health practitioners helps articulate a subculture-centered approach to public health communication. This article explores public health practitioners’ communication strategies with one subculture: young (18- to 29-year-old) men who have sex with men (MSM). Interviews with staff at a public health clinic reveal the use of a variety of social media systems to engage potential MSM clients (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Grin…
Health benefits and barriers to cell phone use in low-income urban U.S. neighborhoods: Indications of technology maintenance
Little is known about the everyday health and safety benefits of cell phones for the U.S. poor, despite heightened risks of illness and exposure to crime for this population. Interviews with low-income, urban U.S. residents reveal that cell phones are an asset for psychological reassurance, crime prevention, and critical access to emergency help. At the same time findings reveal that these residents often have broken and disconnected cell phones …
Introduction: Marginality and Social Media
This special issue brings together 13 manuscripts and two practitioner responses that speak to the intersection of marginality and social media in a variety of contexts. Readers of Social Media + Society certainly know what social media are, but marginality may be more elusive. We introduce this special issue by noting the historical moment for studying marginality, providing a working definition of that concept, and highlighting how this special…
You got a hole in your belly and a phone in your hand: How US government phone subsidies shape the search for employment
Many of the tasks involved in looking for a job these days involve sharing and storing digital data. Digital technology is now required for job seekers to research employers, store resumes, complete applications, and schedule interviews. What is the employment process for people who are living on the poverty line, without reliable access to the Internet or mobile phones? We focus on technology maintenance, the continuous work required to stay dig…
Language Style Matching as a Predictor of Social Dynamics in Small Groups
Synchronized verbal behavior can reveal important information about social dynamics. This study introduces the linguistic style matching (LSM) algorithm for calculating verbal mimicry based on an automated textual analysis of function words. The LSM algorithm was applied to language generated during a small group discussion in which 70 groups comprised of 324 individuals engaged in an information search task either face-to-face or via text-based …
Caring for Mobile Phone-Based Virtual Pets can Influence Youth Eating Behaviors
This study tests the effects of feedback from a virtual pet on behavior change. A randomized field experiment with 39 adolescents in the US examined how a mobile phone game influenced their likelihood to eat breakfast. Manipulations included varying positive and negative visual feedback in response to participants' photos of breakfast meals. Results indicate that participants with a virtual pet that provided both positive and negative feedback we…
Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media: Communication About Health Disparities
Journal Article Communication About Health Disparities in the Mass Media Get access Jeff Niederdeppe, Jeff Niederdeppe 1Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Cabral A. Bigman, Cabral A. Bigman 2Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Go…
Health benefits and barriers to cell phone use in low-income urban U.S. neighborhoods: Indications of technology maintenance
Little is known about the everyday health and safety benefits of cell phones for the U.S. poor, despite heightened risks of illness and exposure to crime for this population. Interviews with low-income, urban U.S. residents reveal that cell phones are an asset for psychological reassurance, crime prevention, and critical access to emergency help. At the same time findings reveal that these residents often have broken and disconnected cell phones …
Cell phone disconnection disrupts access to healthcare and health resources: A technology maintenance perspective
Over 50% of people in poverty in the United States no longer have a landline telephone, and this same population is more likely to have a no-contract cell phone plan requiring the continuous purchase of minutes. As a result, the poor may increasingly experience short-term phonelessness, which may disrupt access to healthcare and other services. To explore this we conducted 37 client interviews and 7 staff interviews at two free health clinics. Ce…
Subculture-centered public health communication: A social media strategy
Social media use by health practitioners helps articulate a subculture-centered approach to public health communication. This article explores public health practitioners’ communication strategies with one subculture: young (18- to 29-year-old) men who have sex with men (MSM). Interviews with staff at a public health clinic reveal the use of a variety of social media systems to engage potential MSM clients (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Grin…
The contemporary US digital divide: From initial access to technology maintenance
As US Internet penetration rates have climbed, digital divide researchers have largely shifted attention to differences in Internet skills. Interviews with 72 low-income US residents from both a large metropolitan city and a medium-sized Midwestern town, however, reveal that many people still struggle to maintain physical access, supporting technology maintenance theory. Technology maintenance theory argues that although most of the US poor now u…
Improving Health in Low-Income Communities With Group Texting: Improving Health With Group Text
Journal Article Improving Health in Low-Income Communities with Group Texting Get access Amy L. Gonzales Amy L. Gonzales 1Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 66, Issue 1, February 2016, Pages 82–101, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12195 Published: 20 November 2015
Public Cellphone Use Does Not Activate Negative Responses in Others…Unless They Hate Cellphones: Cellphone Ostracism
Ostracism dramatically reduces psychosocial well-being. Many studies have examined ostracism within digital environments, but to our knowledge no one has examined ostracism as manifested through public cellphone use. Experimental data revealed that public texting or reading on a cellphone was less ostracizing to copresent others than face-to-face ostracism but more ostracizing than face-to-face inclusion. Though cellphone use was somewhat ostraci…
Better everyone should know our business than we lose our house”: Costs and benefits of medical crowdfunding for support, privacy, and identity
In the United States, medical crowdfunding is an increasingly common response to overwhelming healthcare costs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals crowdfunding for health (e.g. cancer, paralysis, brain injury) on behalf of themselves or others, to better understand this new phenomenon as it informs theory on social support, identity, and privacy. First, findings suggest that crowdfunding is often a resource for both ins…
The Digital Street
A Critical Approach to Investigating Communication Practices of Marginalized Populations Using Longitudinal Field Experiments
Research on information and communication technologies conducted with a vulnerable sample consists of a unique host of challenges not experienced in research with oft-used student samples. This article suggests that field experiments, conducted through a self-reflexive critical studies lens, are one way that communication researchers may address some of these barriers while keeping in mind sensitivity to inherent power imbalances. While consideri…
Introduction: Marginality and Social Media
This special issue brings together 13 manuscripts and two practitioner responses that speak to the intersection of marginality and social media in a variety of contexts. Readers of Social Media + Society certainly know what social media are, but marginality may be more elusive. We introduce this special issue by noting the historical moment for studying marginality, providing a working definition of that concept, and highlighting how this special…
You got a hole in your belly and a phone in your hand: How US government phone subsidies shape the search for employment
Many of the tasks involved in looking for a job these days involve sharing and storing digital data. Digital technology is now required for job seekers to research employers, store resumes, complete applications, and schedule interviews. What is the employment process for people who are living on the poverty line, without reliable access to the Internet or mobile phones? We focus on technology maintenance, the continuous work required to stay dig…
If They Only Disrespect Us a Little, and the Story is Interesting, I Keep Watching: Navigation of Ethnic Media Gratifications by Latino Teens
The goal of this study was to apply insights from social identity gratifications and ethnic/racial identity development frameworks to better understand how adolescents perceive, select, and avoid media content which has the potential to damage self-and group-concept. We conducted focus groups with 32 Latino adolescents aged 13 to 15. We found mixed evidence that youth prioritized the ethnicity of characters in program selection. Most referenced p…
An Explication of Identity Shift Theory: Getting Our Shift Together
First articulated in 2008, the concept of identity shift refers to the process of self-transformation that is the result of intentional self-presentation in a mediated context. As research into identity shift has become increasingly prevalent, our understanding of the concept’s mechanisms and constraints has become more detailed and in depth. We now have a greater understanding of the process and limitations of identity shift: an understanding su…
When we tolerate online incivility: Dual-Process Effects of Argument Strength and Heuristic Cues in Uncivil User Comments
Making stability dependable: Stable cellphone access leads to better health outcomes for those experiencing poverty
The technology maintenance framework argues that digital access is unreliable and thus consequential for individual/social welfare. However, no one has demonstrated a causal effect of cell phone access on health and well-being. Using a 7-month longitudinal field experiment we investigated how stable cellphone access impacts health and quality of life of people experiencing poverty (N = 45, median annual income = $7,216). Participants received pho…
Young women’s perceptions of cooperative privacy threats through the lens of abortion in the United States
Privacy scholars have posited that institutional privacy threats arouse more uncertainty than social privacy threats, though research examining different types of privacy threats side-by-side is limited. This research uses the repeal of federal protection for abortion in the United States as a case study to explore reactions to these different threats. Moreover, by separately considering corporations and the state, we inductively examine beliefs …
First-level fundamentals: Computer ownership is more important for internet benefits than in-home internet service
Although computers, smartphones, and internet service are essential 21st century tools, digital equity stakeholders often focus on in-home internet service in their advocacy. Yet few scholars have compared the associated benefits of different fundamental digital resources. In response, a cross-sectional analysis of two waves of U.S. census data (2020, N = 84,206; 2023, N = 82,941) revealed that computer use (laptop/desktop) was consistently a str…
Technology-mediated communication among migrant families separated by borders: Understanding the tensions of relational maintenance
This study examined how highly under-resourced Latina/o/x/e families used technologically mediated communication to maintain their relationship when experiencing migration-based family separation. Drawing on relational maintenance literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 family triads, each including a father, mother, and child (children between 9 and 17 years old). The findings extend past research on relational maintenance …
Computer Science (17 works) · Social Media and Politics (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Internet privacy (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Phone (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)