World news is the term for international news, and can be applied to any type of news story that happens outside a country’s borders. This includes both breaking news stories and long-term coverage of events such as wars, or summits of multilateral organizations.
While it is not always viewed as a distinct field in journalism, the term “world news” has been around for nearly as long as the concept of nation-states, and it was the subject of many early newspaper articles. In the 17th century, European papers like the Courant de Londres, the Nieuwe Tijudinger and the Avisa Relation oder Zeitung were already publishing stories about foreign affairs. By the 19th century, advances in telecommunications allowed these reports to be easily spread across Europe and America, and the first news agencies were established.
A journalist who specializes in world news may be called a foreign correspondent or a special envoy, and she/he typically files stories for multiple media sources. In some cases, journalists working abroad with no permanent contract to a particular news organization are referred to as stringers. This term is also used to describe the bulk of the material that is published by the major news agency services, which sell bulk articles (originally through telegraphy; today they frequently use Internet connections). The same article may be sold to several different outlets.
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