Canadian Journal of Sociology Online July-August 2007 Toby Miller Cultural Citizenship: Cosmopolitanism, Consumerism and Television in a Neoliberal Age Temple University Press, 2006, 248 pp. $US 23.95 paper (1-59213-561-7), $US 69.50 hardcover (1-59213-560-9) There is a tale, possibly apocryphal, about Toby Miller randomly tossing out copies of this book to audiences at conference presentations, an appropriately populist gesture for a decidedly populist piece of work. This is a book for the people at a time when they most need to read books, especially books that cast a critical light on what commercial media, particularly Anglo-American network television media, do to the possibility of politics. In line with his body of previous work in cultural studies, Miller strives here to cast just such a light. He largely succeeds. The book’s jacket endorsements describe it as “informative,” “provocative,” and “a ride through the mean streets of consumerism, neoliberalism and TV culture.” It is certainly all that, but whether these qualities, so sure to grab the attention of readers accustomed to the discursive strategies of the very medium whose political failures are documented in this book, will also satisfy the appetites of scholars versed in media, cultural and citizenship studies, is not so clear. Miller’s primary concern in this book is “citizens’ knowledge of US foreign/military policy and corporate/governmental conduct in areas of basic needs and the environment” (17). In short, he is concerned that the great majority of American citizens seem so unaware, unconcerned, and unmoved by the oppressive, unhealthy and destructive character of the regime under which they live and are governed, a pathology he is prepared to assign at least partially to the performance of the country’s major TV news and entertainment corporations. This is a story about ideology and hegemony, and the instruments and techniques by which these are reproduced. To his credit, Miller recognizes that it is a story often told, but insists our contemporary situation demands it be told again and again. He is absolutely right about this. Our well-worn knowledge of the political economy of mass media in the context of advanced capitalism is not a license to stop talking about it. Critical media scholars will only be able to afford this luxury when the capitalist media have disappeared for good, and that is not about to happen anytime soon. Indeed, it is arguable that, the internet notwithstanding, we are further away from a democratic media system now than we have ever been, and so voices like Miller’s are more important and necessary than ever. Miller’s critique is set apart from standard Left media criticism by his effort to situate it as a work on citizenship. Early on, Miller tries to distinguish his from other work on citizenship by informing us that his will be neither “very theoretical” (in the sense of political theory and philosophy) nor “very empirical” (in the sense of sociology and political science). For Miller, this cashes out in a vaguely Foucaultian promise to “blend theorization with grounded study” (25) but, by the end of the book, scholarly readers may find that this methodological sleight-of-hand serves as a license for the author’s less than fulsome attention to rigorous argument and systematically-presented evidence. Such may be concessions to traditions with which Miller may not wish to align himself, but even readers who, like me, are in sympathy with Miller’s politics and media critique may be frustrated by “moving rapidly between theory and fact, speculation and setting”(25). Miller’s admission — “I know of no other way to write” (25) — is refreshingly honest but, ultimately, not much of an excuse. As far as citizenship goes, Miller specifies that his concern is with the zone of cultural citizenship (“the right to know and speak”) rather that the zones of political (“the right to reside and vote”) or