Queer attention matters: a study on affordance from queer male media practices on Zhihu

Abstract

Abstract This study examines how Chinese queer males explore various affordances on an open platform that is accessible to everyone. After recruiting 14 queer male informants for semi-structured interviews and employing the method of cyberethnography, we conducted a thematic analysis and identified three main affordances perceived by queer males on Zhihu, a Chinese question-answering online community: intragroup text-sociability, identity reflexivity, and community (un)expandability. Based on these practical findings, the study proposes the concept of “queer attention” to explain why queer males explore these specific affordances and further develops the discussion around the role of attention in influencing the generation of affordance effect.