The article deals with the issue of fostering intercultural competence through global news programs. The authors consider key concepts of the issues taking Hofstede’s viewpoint on culture and his “culture onion” as the basis for understanding whether and how global news can be involved into building intercultural skills so relevant to the globalized world. The issue of media is also viewed through the prism of McLuhan’s “understanding the media”, where media are seen as a trigger for launching motivation for gaining cultural knowledge. The authors’ project generally accepted structure of intercultural competence and its components onto pedagogical process and share the finding of their classroom research analyzing the state of cultural awareness and the picture of cultural identity in the group of students of Saint-Petersburg University and come to the conclusion that cultural identity and cultural sensitivity should serve as the background for the process of fostering intercultural competence and glo