World news, also international or foreign news, is a term used in the media to describe the global events that affect people. It may refer to a newspaper’s international edition or to the coverage of global affairs on television, radio or internet. World news is usually the purview of a major news agency that prepares articles for distribution to a wide range of clients, including newspapers, magazines and radio or television broadcasters. This work is commonly done by reporters based abroad, called correspondents.
The field of world news includes the subfields of war journalism, where stories focus on a conflict involving a particular nation (although this can often be considered “national” news for the media of belligerent countries themselves) and global health and development, which are broader in scope than simply covering events that directly affect a single country or region. A journalist specializing in world news may be a foreign correspondent (full-time reporter based in a foreign city, sometimes with a broader assignment across a continent or an entire region) or a special envoy sent to report on a specific subject, such as a humanitarian crisis, political summit or war. These reporters are often called stringers, as they typically have no permanent employment contract with any one company and produce for multiple outlets at once.