National news refers to events and issues that affect the entire country. These include politics, economy and major disasters. In contrast, local news focuses on events that are relevant to a particular community and its people.
Alternatively, national news can also refer to events that occur in a specific region of the country (although this can sometimes be considered world news). In journalism, world news is often referred to as foreign coverage. It is one of the many subfields within journalism, and it can be divided into several categories including war coverage (although this category tends to be considered a subcategory of world news for the media of belligerent countries themselves).
Reporters based in a foreign city or covering a global subject are usually called correspondents. Correspondents can be employed by a single news source or may work for a number of different sources at the same time. Typically, correspondents are full-time reporters, but occasionally they are sent abroad on a temporary basis as part of a special assignment. A reporter who produces material for multiple news sources without a permanent labor contract is commonly known as a stringer. Historically, most of the world’s news was reported by correspondents in the form of telegraphed articles. This led to the formation of news agencies, such as Reuters, AFP and Wolff. These centralized, specialized organizations prepare hard news stories and other types of articles that are sold in bulk to newspapers, radio and television outlets and other media companies.