Reading as a complex cultural technique is a total social phenomenon (M. Mauss: "phénomène social total") that permeates all areas of modern societies and is relevant to the behavior of all actors in a society. Literal societies are characterized by the fact that the entire social life is dominated by forms of written communication. Signs encoded in writing present themselves ubiquitously in all situations of life and on all conceivable surfaces and artifacts, from package inserts and traffic signs to advertising posters and WhatsApp speech bubbles to blogs, newspapers, and books. The decoding technique of reading is thus fundamentally necessary in order to access information and to participate in communicative processes of any degree of complexity. Reading involves static sign systems arranged in the plane, such as the letters of the alphabet as blackletter or braille, or the panels of a comic book.
The research area examines reading as a complex cultural and reception technique with a focus on media-mediated public communication in and by societies.