This paper serves to explore how comic books have managed to become a pillar of today’s pop culture, yet the core product, the comic books themselves, continually fails to find their way into the hands of a populace receptive and willing to purchase them, as a result of a mismanagement of marketing, with a focus on digital platforms like social media, and the use of Marvel Entertainment as a primary example. In addition to this analysis, I have endeavored to carry out a reading unit designed in collaboration with Lynne Molina of Boulder Creek High School, as a means to poll over 130+ students for responses pertaining to both their ability to consume and respond to a graphic novel in a similar manner to that of a typical piece of literature, as well as their exposure to marketing for comics for the creative project portion of the thesis.

In this research paper I combine statistics from various reports and studies with around 20 different interviews with female journalists to understand how women are faring in national and local television newsrooms in 2019. I explore issues such as the pay gap, sexual assault, the importance of appearance, balancing work and family life and obstacles that women of color uniquely face. I spoke with women from various cultural backgrounds, experience levels, and in different positions within their newsrooms. Through my scholarly research and 19 interviews with women who either currently work at NBC News in New York City and women who currently or recently worked at 12News, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, I conclude they share similar stories of oppression, sexism and issues. However, women have made more progress in local markets and have more opportunities when compared to the national level. I also explore reasons for why this disparity is happening and why local newsrooms seem to have more women represented through their on-air talent than national newsrooms do. One of the reasons I concluded for this include, how local newsrooms have a better understanding of their audience members thus making them more able to reflect their talent to their diverse audience. Another factor that might play a role in this disparity includes, the historical factor and societal norm of seeing men in higher positions and authoritative roles, such as being an anchor, at the network level. Lastly, the idea of how family and having children impacts women’s careers more than men. This can lead to less women pursuing a job at the network since they must spend time raising a family and have the ability and flexibility to do that easier at the local level. Overall, I focused on the barriers, obstacles and stories these women have had throughout their careers all while looking at it from both a local perspective and a national one.