Perez's news story on Kristin!

We say, BLAME KRISTIN CAVALLARI!!!

Could this be the end of The Hills?! Has Speidi seen it's day?! Has Kristin destroyed the franchise?!

We sincerely hope so!

In Lambiase's article, she examines how audiences are trained to relate to news characters based on their stereotypes. She states, "throughout U.S. media history, the most familiar characterizations exhibit salience and power." So, I chose to examine one the most popular celebrity blogs, Perez Hilton, and his story on MTV's The Hills' new reality character, Kristin Cavallari. With Lauren leaving the show, The Hills producers had to hire someone "with salience and power," or, someone who would bring in drama and keep audience interest in the show. Hence, producers casted Kristin, and used the slogan "The Bitch Is Back" to advertise for her debut on the show. Kristin exhibits the same stereotypical Hills character qualities: she's blonde, beautiful, thin, sexy, fashionable, and a true California girl. These are all qualities that all characters on The Hills cast embody, including qualities that Lauren brought to the show. However, Perez discusses how it just isn't the same without Lauren and states that Kristin's forced drama is dragging down ratings for the show. Lauren was much more passive and sweet and did not go looking for drama, but rather had to deal with unfortunate and frustrating run-ins with Heidi and Spencer. Instead, Kristin puts herself in a position to create drama by dating Justin Bobby, an ex of Audrina's who she rightfully knows is off limits. This makes Kristin a less classy character than Lauren was, and perhaps this is a reason why so many people have given up watching the show because Lauren was someone most girls look up to and aspire to be, and Kristin is not exactly the girl we want to model our behavior after. Additionally, Kristin's careless attitude also gives a bad vibe because it makes people think she thinks she's better than everyone and is only on the show to ruin people's lives, and many of the viewers who used to watch Lauren do not want to be apart of someone who's taking over a show to make it some big publicity scene and further their career. So, whether Kristin was hired as a media character for Lambiase's reasons such as "sudden deadlines, economic viability, or management expectations," she seems to not be doing as good of a job as producer's expected. Maybe she'll care and want to change her attitude, but chances are we're not going to see that in any upcoming episodes.