World news is the term used in the news media for international events. This type of news can be reported in national newspapers (although it often isn’t), on international television or radio, in international news agencies or – more recently – over the Internet. This is an important area of journalism because the development of nation-states made it possible to spread news far and wide. At the beginning of modern journalism, most news was foreign — as recorded in courants from 17th century Europe and the Avisa Relation oder Zeitung (Amsterdam).
A major subfield of world news is war reporting, although that can also be considered a national matter for belligerent countries’ own media sources. There are two main types of reporters who do foreign reporting: the correspondent, a full-time reporter stationed in a city or region who regularly files stories to his/her source; and the special envoy, sent abroad for a short period to cover a specific subject, such as an economic summit or a natural disaster. News agencies, particularly the major ones such as AP and Reuters, prepare hard news and feature articles in bulk for sale to news outlets, which typically publish them without any editorial changes.
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