ations are responsible for news dissemination to other forms of mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, etc. Post World War 2, film, radio, television and now Internet, have become major carriers of information within and outside countries, supplementing but not supplanting, print journalism. News agencies contribute significantly to the output through all four modern mass media.
             The history of the world news agencies can be traced back to the mid 19th century when newspapers in advanced countries joined together to send correspondents abroad to cover events of common interest to them. Such pooling was dictated by economic necessity. The first news agency, 'Havas" in France, was founded in 1835 by Charles Havas. In the US, the newspapers of New York got together in 1848 for coverage of the war with Mexico. A trend developed into the system of a country's newspapers jointly establishing a news agency for the coverage of both domestic and foreign news. Today, national news agencies exist in 120 sovereign countries but the major ones are located in the developed countries of the west. Some 35 developing countries have no news agencies at all including 24, with populations of more than 1 million.
             A special feature of the development is that five major news agencies dominate news collection and distribution all over the world by virtue of their size and technological strength. These are
             1. Agence France Press (AFP) - France
             4. United Press International (UPI) – USA
             Each of these has offices in a large number of countries. Together they transmit millions of words each day to all parts of the world, informing and influencing public opinion and perceptions.
             The Press Trust of India (PTI) is a cooperative non-profit-making news trust that aims at providing efficient and unbiased news services to all its subscribers. Founded in 1949 as a successor to the British-owned Associated Press of India (API), its news service i...