Drawing from the findings of a lengthy study of international news conducted by the American Committee of the International Association for Mass Communication Research at the request of UNESCO, this paper provides information on the system by which news is distributed around the world, on the international news content of four Western news agencies (The Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse), and on different explanations for the dominance of these four organizations. The paper concludes that Western news agencies do not ignore the Third World in their regional service to developing nations, that news emphasizing politics is standard all over the world, and that western agencies are dominant in most of the world because their files require less editing to conform to local sensitivities and opinions. Tables are provided concerning (1) geographic distribution of wire service news to Latin America, (2) geographic representation of wire service news by regional origin, (3) coverage of three world areas by Western news agencies, (4) distribution of the main topic of wire service news to Latin America, (5) correlation between main topics in First and Third World coverage, (6) themes and references in foreign news, (7) correlation between media and wire service coverage in Latin America, and (8) sources of foreign news from 16 countries. (MKM)