Media Literacy Analysis of Amy Heckerling's "Clueless"

INTRODUCTION

We, the majority of people can be naïve over the amount of media that daily affects our lives. We tend to only take note of a relatively small percentage of high-end noticeable tragedies, and use that as a basis of how we are "being affected by the media." I recently watched the movie "Clueless," and I am going to be discussing the "degree of identification" of which relates to me, the viewer and the character in a "psychological relationship."

JOSH

The character that I am basing this concept on is that of Josh. He is the stepbrother of Cher, the main character. His innocent attitude and down to earth personality first grabbed me and as the movie progressed, more of his personality comes out. I find that he is quite a nerdy person who does his own thing even though it appears pretty lame to his stepsister and her friends.

Clueless (film)

Josh being silly

JOSH BUTFIELD

These qualities that I find it myself differ slightly from his but the basic framing of ideologies is shared between us.

This psychological process is a two-step process. The first step questions our judgement on our attraction to the character and how alike we are, and the second is the "as if" experience of seeing ourselves in the role of the character in the film.

I liked Josh's optimistic attitude whereby he sees the best in people and how he is willing to help out without receiving any special recognition for the work. I found this type of personality to be attractive as I was able to see how much I was like him.

After having chosen him as my role model for the film, I started placing myself "in his shoes" and playing out his role. I would find myself feeling his emotions and being able to...