Purpose and implication of using code to represent character sets

Just as with audio and image data, without knowing what binary data represents, it is impossible to decode the information.

A large part of data representation is the use of binary to encode text. In order for people globally to understand the content, it is necessary to have a global, universally understood way of encoding content.

This is why ASCII and Unicode exist: to make sure that information can be shared universally. Without schemes like this, it would not be possible to store text and guarantee its subsequent retrieval.