Studying digital vulnerabilities through Data Donation methodology
Dr Joanna Strycharz
AIO members are invited to an exclusive workshop, Studying Digital Vulnerabilities through Data Donation, to be held on Tuesday 18 November 2025 from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm AEDT. The session will run in a hybrid format, with both in person and online participation available.
Registrations are essential to receive Zoom details.
Exploring digital vulnerability in the age of algorithmic advertising
This interactive workshop will examine how researchers can investigate digital vulnerabilities that arise in the context of advertising and branded communication. The session will open with a discussion of how computational advertising disrupts traditional understandings of consumer vulnerability and redirects focus toward data-driven and digital forms of vulnerability.
Participants will then work with a hands-on data donation tool, recently developed to collect real-world platform data relating to advertising exposure, targeting, and profiling practices. Using donated datasets, the group will explore how these data can be connected to key advertising and communication theories, including:
Persuasion knowledge
Privacy calculus
Vulnerability frameworks
The workshop will blend conceptual discussion with practical exploration, providing attendees with concrete ideas for incorporating data-driven methods into research on digital persuasion and consumer vulnerability.
About the presenter: Dr Joanna Strycharz
The workshop will be led by Dr Joanna Strycharz, Assistant Professor of Persuasive Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. Dr Strycharz’s work focuses on advertising in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence, with a particular emphasis on:
Consumer vulnerability and empowerment
Individual and societal consequences of algorithmic persuasion
Ethical and responsible uses of data in advertising
She is the recipient of a prestigious Dutch Research Council Veni grant for her project on vulnerability exploitation through algorithmic persuasion and is co-director of the Digital Communication Methods Lab, where she supports interdisciplinary collaboration in computational advertising research.
Her research has appeared in journals including the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. She serves on the Editorial Review Boards of four advertising journals, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Advertising, and has previously been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Interactive Advertising. Dr Strycharz is also the recipient of the 2024 Mary Alice Shaver Promising Professor Award and the 2021 AEJMC Emerging Scholar Grant.
Beyond academia, she contributes actively to debates on ethical and responsible advertising, and works with policymakers and consumer organisations to translate research into societal and policy impact.
Enquiries: Questions about this workshop can be directed to ADM+S Centre Manager, Research Training and Development, Sally Storey.
If interested to attend online: please register to receive Zoom details.