National news is the area of journalism that covers events, issues, and developments that affect a single country. This includes the country’s politics, economy, major disasters, and international events that have a direct impact on domestic citizens. National news also includes crime reports, human interest stories, and local government affairs.
A news agency is a company that prepares hard news stories and other material in bulk and provides it to other news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and the Internet. Most of the articles on the news agencies’ wire services (originally through telegraphy; today frequently via the Internet) are national news, though some may be world news or news from multilateral organizations that involve the United States. News agencies are usually established to provide a service for subscribers, which may include individuals, companies, analysts, and intelligence agencies.
During the early days of modern journalism, most of the world’s news was foreign news. This was true even in 17th-century Europe, when most papers were aimed at bankers and the courants (daily newspapers) of the time registered such names as The Daily Courant (England), Nieuwe Tijudinger (Antwerp), or Relation oder Zeitung (Strasbourg). The development of distance communication technologies, especially telecommunications and telegraphy, made it possible for more and more news to be reported from abroad.
News media should reflect an accurate and unbiased reflection of both local, national, and world events. This requires that the journalists involved in the production of the news be competent, and that the news itself be a true reflection of those events.