This article introduces an approach to creative media literacy for world issues (WIs) such as COVID-19. In so doing, the article integrates four positions on discourse and media as terrible facets of globalization in the context of critical discourse analysis (CDA). The objectivist position deals with WIs as neutral discourse shared among humanity and distributed through English as an international language and educational media. The ideologist position treats creative media literacy as relations of power between global and local identities in the form of competing discourses associated with WIs. The rhetorical position reveals the hidden strategies used in global media discourse and English as a global language. The social constructionist position provides three levels of analysis for creative media literacy among university students: textual analysis, discourse analysis, and critical discourse analysis. The article concludes with guidelines on how lecturers can implement this approach with English as a foreign language (EFL) students.