For discourse analysis and similar social science analysis, the "text" could be written words, but it could also be a movie, TV program, audio, etc.

The text needs to be something that conveys meaning in the source material. For discourse analysis, this is the language used, whether it is conveyed by written text, audio, or video. In audio or video, it might also include vocal patterns, body language, and other nonverbal things that convey meaning.

Michael W. Marek

I am attaching the book here, its first chapter will help you to understand what a text actually is. As Habtamu Fikre mentioned that text could be in both forms i.e. written and spoken.

Regards,

Komal Rafique

Postgraduate Researcher at University of Education, Lahore

Usually, the word “text” refers to a written or typed document. In terms of a rhetorical situation, however, “text” means any form of communication that humans create.In academic terms, a text is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and 'zines (an informal term for magazine that refers especially to fanzines and webzines).

Teverything with lexical matter is a text: newspaper articles and books the same as shopping lists, receipts or spoken utterances (though some people want to see these only as 'text' wwhen transcriped).

Hasan Abu-Krooz, thank you for fostering my insights and resolving my confusion on the concept. I would be much grateful if you could in any way send me materials that can help me conduct a thesis on text analysis including but not limited to materials for theoretical framework, methods of data generation and analysis and so forth