World news is a general term for stories pertaining to the events occurring throughout the world. Whether it’s about war, climate change or an alien invasion, there is usually always something going on somewhere in the world that can be newsworthy to someone.
A major subfield of world news is foreign journalism. The majority of newspapers and radio and television stations have a dedicated reporter that specializes in foreign coverage. These reporters often travel to cover different countries or regions and are referred to as correspondents. They also often work with a network of local journalists to gather information for their reports.
The tabloid Weekly World News was founded in 1979 by Generoso Pope Jr., a 10th-grade dropout and former copy editor for small town newspapers. It was unique for its time as a black-and-white publication and was printed in Lantana, Florida. The paper was known for its satire of current and past presidential administrations. For example, WWN reported that the founding fathers were all gay and Abraham Lincoln was insane. The magazine also featured an alien that it called P’Lod who fraternized with Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, and was said to be an expert on the Middle East conflict.
Stories involving shockingly obese people made their way onto the pages of WWN as well. One of the more notable ones centered on Roland Gillespie, who claimed to be the world’s fattest man at 576.2 pounds. The paper encouraged readers to send in their guesses about his weight and even ran a poll where the top two candidates were voted on by WWN readers.