We are in the midst of deeply uncertain and confusing times as the current epoch is one where social movements, fake news, worldwide resistance, social media, climate change and “tipping points,” reality television show presidencies (i.e. Modi, Bolsonaro, Duterte and not too long ago, Trump), nothing less than the world’s worst pandemic in a century (from which we are still reeling), all cloud over the nation’s and the world’s future. These topics will be tackled in this probing grad-level seminar which will seek to help empower students with an intellectual self-defenses against the confusing times and overloads of misinformation. Gaining the practical and useful skill of a healthy level of news media literacy will be a leading objective of this course, but so will advancing one’s critical thinking abilities when it comes to analyzing and sizing up the leading issues of the day, taking into full consideration the mainstream news media during the digital age of social media.