Sometimes news is about local issues, like traffic jams. It tells the local community what's going on. It can also be about world events that affect everybody, like war, famine and flood. So whether it's a parking problem in Peckham, or an oil spillage in Alaska you'll find it in the news.

Weather is always in the news too. Television news can bring us dramatic pictures of the victims of flooding and drought. Local weather forecasts tell us if it's going to rain. But they can also highlight climate change and global warming.

News enables us to watch worldwide events even as they happen. The gap between the local and the global is getting smaller. This is known as globalisation.