The purpose of the course is to enhance students' awareness of media roles in personal life and social development. It aims at developing students' critical ability and media literacy to understand the political economy of media production, deconstruct media messages, and explore the cultural impact of the media. This course advances a systematic scrutiny of critical theory and its application in studies of media and culture. The first part provides the historical contour of critical theory from the emergence of the Frankfurt School in 1930s to theoretical advances by Jurgen Habermas after the Second World War. The second part looks into how critical theory is extended to apply to the analysis of media and cultural productions in contemporary capitalist world. The third part assesses its value and limitation in explaining and interpreting media developments and their implications. Special attention will be given to news media and journalism.