World news is the coverage of events occurring outside a country. It is a subfield of journalism that can be distinguished from national news and international news (although some war journalism may be considered to be part of world news). A country may have its own news agencies, but the bulk of the content from major news agencies comes from foreign reporting. Journalists who work abroad on a regular basis have permanent contracts with media outlets; they are often called foreign correspondents, and the bulk of their reporting is from world news events. Other journalists working outside of their own countries are known as stringers, and they usually produce material for several different news organizations at once.
The program combines hard news with lighter features, including a song by an accordion player playing the World News Polka and video footage of dancing camels on Wednesday’s (“Hump Day”). During a story about the United States and the Soviet Union, anchors would occasionally switch from their American studio to the BBC headquarters in London; while standing in front of a street-view video wall, the presenters would sometimes note the number of double-decker buses passing by in the background.
In the past, some network affiliates (such as KTWO-TV in Casper, Wyoming and WVII-TV in Bangor, Maine) preempted World News Now for a simulcast of the cable home shopping channel Jewelry Television, but the stations reinstated the show when those syndication contracts expired. However, other stations have chosen to not air the program at all, mainly choosing to run syndicated programming until their local news starts.