A PhD thesis at the Department of Arabic Language at the College of Arts at the University of Basrah examined (The Rhetoric of the Visual and Its Functions in Political Discourse in Iraq (1979-2020))
The thesis, presented by researcher Adhraa Ali Ne'ma Abdul Hussein, included three chapters (Illustrated Wars and the Production of Their Functions in Iraqi Political Discourse and the Effectiveness of the Visual in Protest Movements and the Rhetoric of the Electoral Visual between Persuasion, Manipulation and Domination).
The thesis aims to reveal the rhetorical methods in visual political discourses for successive and different periods of time and their functional impact on the perception of the Iraqi masses and then get rid of the control of these discourses over the collective consciousness and expose their falsehood.
The thesis concluded: The effectiveness of visual discourses in the field of politics has a dangerous effect, through the investment of rhetorical methods of all kinds, and the employment of all types of visuals to serve political goals due to the relationship of these visuals with the human being and the speed of their communication and their direct impact on all classes of society and then their impact on decision-making and determining opinions towards political matters, and with the difference in the chosen time periods and the variation in the exploitation of these visuals from one period to another, their effectiveness remains dangerous and their impact cannot be ignored in manipulating the political decision-making of the Iraqi masses.
