Between September and December 2016, Ludovic Balland set out with journalist Dasha Lisitsina and independent researcher Anna Levy to document how Americans were making sense of the constant hum of media coverage in the run up to and aftermath of the contentious general election. The result of this four-month road trip is Day After Reading, which collects interviews with more than two hundred people living in cities and small towns across the United States. With print media struggling to survive in the age of 24 hour real-time news and social media feeds, Day After Reading presents a new, personalised model of story-telling in journalism that reaches audiences by emphasising how everyday news articles relate to personal experience and form people's views. Throughout the trip, Ballard and his collaborators spoke with a wide variety of American citizens, reflecting the diversity of perspectives in the United States today, including people of vastly different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds; and both everyday citizens as well as politicians and celebrities.
Through their statements and the expressive full-page colour portraits featured in the book, we are encouraged to consider the hopes, fears, and expectations of the American populace, before and after the election. Filled with fascinating insights, Day After Reading is the comprehensive archive of this fascinating media project. Originally published across multiple platforms, including the project's website and social media channels, as well as local print and online newspapers, and the radio and television stations that distributed the interviews, this book is integrated into every mode of modern communication technology. It constitutes a highly original record of the United States, at a time when the country was facing great uncertainty and change.