The SMTP protocol is used for the transmission of e-mails. SMTP takes care of sending your email to another computer.
Normally your email is sent to an email server (SMTP server), and then to another server or servers, and finally to its destination.
SMTP can only transmit pure text. It cannot transmit binary data like pictures, sounds or movies.
SMTP uses the MIME protocol to send binary data across TCP/IP networks. The MIME protocol converts binary data to pure text.
- from w3schools.com

A question for those more knowledgeable than me: Why are just the media sent through Email considered binary data? At its essence isn't all data binary? I mean I know text is derived from ASCII standard (if 'standard' is the correct term for it) but broken down even farther isn't it also binary in its origin?

Can someone break this down a bit for me, I'd really like a better understanding of this.

Thanks in advance to all respondents.

Blessings
F