BLURAH. The Experience

In media studies, the term text holds a broader meaning than most assume. Rooted in semiotic theory, text refers not simply to written words, but to the meanings constructed through interaction in the communication process. For example, when you say the word “dad,” its significance isn't determined solely by the speaker—it emerges from shared understanding between sender and receiver. Without this mutual construction of meaning, there is no “text” at all. A symbol, in this sense, can be anything—a word, an object, a person, or a picture—that stands for something else. However, we often fall into the trap of equating text exclusively with the written word. This narrow interpretation leads us to reduce books to mere bundles of printed letters. But what happens when we encounter a book that tells a story without using many—or any—words? That was the revelation I experienced when I discovered a picture book described by its authors not as a book with pictures, but as a book told ...