POLITICAL MEDIA IN THE CONTEMPORRY Iraqi Theatrical Text PJAEE, 17 (07 ) (2020)
POLITICAL MEDIA IN THE CONTEMPORRY
Iraqi Theatrical Text
1Bashar FadhilKadhim 2Prof. Dr. Muhammad Abbas Hantoush 1,2College of Fine Arts, University of Babylon
1Bashar Fadhil Kadhim, 2Prof. Dr. Muhammad Abbas Hantoush; Political Media in the Contemporary Iraqi Theatrical Text-Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt/Egyptology 17 (07), 1673-1691. ISSN 1567-214x. Published October, 2020.
Keywords: political media, theatrical text, Mithal Ghazi.
ABSTRACT
The current investigation attempts to show the political presence in the Iraqi theatrical text is the most prominent and important presence in determining the nature of the suffering that the society has accompanied in theatrical artistic ways in which the playwright played an important role in reversing the political reality theatrically in order to spread awareness and reveal the secrets of politics and its influence on the Iraqi thought. So, the Iraqi theatrical text has a creative stand in crystallizing a political media that is commensurate with the privacy of the Iraqi society. Accordingly, it is concluded that political media is the engine of the political process. Moreover, literary genres, especially rhetoric, were of interest in the Iraqi theatrical textual employment. The Iraqi theatrical text treated the political situation with unconventional methods in order to smoothly convey its political media message to ensure its reach to the addressee. In the content of his theatrical texts, the Iraqi playwright resorted to the theory of media freedom in a more comprehensive way because it suits his ambitions and allows him freedom of expression. The Iraqi theatrical text, through the political media, chronicled the political history of Iraq. Political media is consistent in the theatrical text according to many theories, including the theory of power, the theory of freedom, and the theory of democracy. Political propaganda and its effective role in favor of the authority emerged in the theatrical text to polish the image of the ruler as a political marketing art. Finally, it is indicated that the role of misleading public opinion and concealing the facts was manifested by concealing the bad role of the ruler and giving a good
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illusory role intended to mislead the true image of the ruler, by misleading the people to persuade them to wage war, while the role of misinformation was in concealing the political crime. Introduction
Political transformations and changes have produced many developments in the form, structure, and methods of media delivery and the nature of the orientations of those in charge of political media operations, which refer to the investigation of their starting points and repercussions in the various fields of life and knowledge of conflicts and interactions that in turn produced political media according to its variables, the most important of which are political disputes to reach power and its contradictions in broadcasting its political media images in the midst of a clash of interests. Political media aims to exploit all appropriate methods of influence to present an expressive political image that seeks to deliver a message that is related to the nature of the political goal sought by its sender, which provides an opportunity for politicians to use data and information and analyze society’s reactions towards their policies. Thus, the majority of political regimes sought to obtain their political goals of winning society directly or indirectly by basing their goals into the minds of members of society to control the collective mind and control people through the optimal use of political media, especially after its crystallization as an independent concept at the end of World War II and the emergence of theories that support this concept. The presence of political media has become Effective in theory and practice. One of the effective areas that focused on implementing political media is the structures of literary texts in general, especially in cases of mobilization or to take a position on a specific political event, using its literary method to market an ideology that reveals events, political conflicts, wars and revolutions and seeks to bring about fundamental positive political changes. The international playwrights, through their theatrical texts, aim to present a political media that keeps pace with changes of political situations in order to treat, criticize, or glorify an ideology at the expense of another, using the theatrical text as a media channel that simulates the existence of man and what he suffers from the dominance of politics and its disturbances. Therefore, the presence of political media within the structures of theatrical texts has become an issue of connection and friendship that is in line across time and space with the political reality of each era. The Arab theatrical text took a path that benefited from what it drew from the international theatrical given in the employment of political media and its inclusion in its theatrical texts in a way that reflects the Arab political reality and the human suffering in it and the nature of the political turmoil that imposed its impact and presence in the Arab theatrical text and within the nature of its elements of expression that is consistent with its cultural and informative specificity. Thus,the theatrical text becomes a platform for political media that aims to achieve the appropriate impact on the recipient.
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Likewise, the Iraqi theatrical text, like the international one, sought to include political media in its data to introduce the issues of Iraqi society and to stand on the concerns of the citizen and his political aspirations, while seeking to make the text a source of awareness of the facts of political conflicts in order to advance the living reality after politics produced turbulent influences and transformations. The political presence in the Iraqi theatrical text is the most prominent and important presence in determining the nature of the suffering that the society has accompanied in theatrical artistic ways in which the playwright played an important role in reversing the political reality theatrically in order to spread awareness and reveal the secrets of politics and its influence on the Iraqi thought. So, the Iraqi theatrical text has a creative stand in crystallizing a political media that is commensurate with the privacy of the Iraqi society. The concept of political media Man has been linked to his/her social environment according to the elements of communicative relations determined by media outlets and their political ideology that determines the course of acquaintance among societies. Since the early days of creation, interest has been in the nature of acquaintance among people and the transfer of knowledge through possible media at the time, while emphasizing the importance of presenting the noble image and lofty values in the content of the message. The primitive man used primary media methods to achieve the definition of him/herself and his/her group and to impose his/her spatial authority and to spread the ideas of his/her authority in a way that ensures the impact on his/her society and on other groups. To achieve this, man used physical and vocal sign language, sign using fire, expression by movement, dance, engraving on stones, and drawing symbolic signs of places to communicate Through the oral expression, the naming of objects, and communication through speech to organize the affairs of the tribe according to the nature of its political leadership. Then, the language of communication developed to include rhetoric and poetry, which facilitated the delivery of information due to the speed of its preservation by people and its faster spread among societies and tribes. There was a need to discover paper to write down Rhetoric and poetry. Printing revolutionized communication (Ehdadan, 2014: 19-20). As for (political media), it was also associated with the functions of public media, but it took an intentional political turn. Its signs appeared in ancient civilizations, especially in the civilization of Sumer, which constitutes an important starting point for political power and media control to lead its civilization and the cities it contains. It included city states and the presence of legislative bodies where The rulers were considered the agents of the gods. Political media was based on informing the society of the laws and regulations issued by the legislative authorities concerning the internal and external political situation in Babylon (Ibrahim and Abbas, 2019: 23). Political figures also use the media as a means to enhance their influential presence and broadcast their ideas through media, especially in elections. The campaign led by (John Kennedy) the former President of the United States in 1960 and because of his
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debates with his counterpart (Richard Nixon) made him rely on public relations consultants who run the election campaign. He was the first politician to receive extensive training in media to behave in front of television cameras, which made him win in the US presidential elections (Maarik, 2012: 17-18). Thus, the concept of political media was associated with political legitimacy and the strengthening of its presence in the popular arena. Political media is a branch of media branches and a platform that aims to disseminate news and facts. It is also part of the communication activity carried out by specialized bodies in disseminating information, ideas, and positions on government affairs. The political function is manifested For the media to legitimize certain ideas and concepts and to exclude other ideas and concepts from political debate or discussion. So, it is concluded that the precise concept of political media is to report any content that has a political dimension or meaning (Al-Hawari, 2021: 39).Political media has goals at the internal level that can be focused on the following (Al-Mashaqba, 2015: 100): 1. Communicating the official and popular political discourse to public opinion. 2. Monitoring the work of the political authority and contributing to political upbringing and political development. 3. Interpreting and analyzing political events. 4. Partnership with public opinion, especially in times of local, regional, and international crises. As for the objectives of political media at the external level, they are as follows (Allawi, 2014: 143-144): 1.Collecting sufficient information on the political, social, and media environment within the country and the countries to which it is intended to go or work. 2. Supporting foreign policies of countries or issues at the international level. 3. Creating positive images and impressions about the state and its institutions for recipients in other countries. Radio stations and television channels directed abroad usually play this role. 4. It is concerned with studying media policies from one country to another, as each country has its own policy in the field of media and communication. 5. Achieving a kind of civilized overlap of the state or group of states that communicate within the state and support the culture of the state or regional organization representing the group of states.
Political media in the theatrical text
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Since its early inception in the Greek civilization, the theatrical text included political media that mimics the Athenian political reality, praises its victories, exaggerates its political status, and seeks to show its strength through the theatrical text, which represents a political media at the time, in addition to its influential artistic data, through which various ideologies are presented. In most cases throughout its history,the theatrical text sought to adopt political issues and awaken the revolutionary spirit in the souls of society and work to educate it politically by broadcasting the intended political information to the recipient in the form of direct or indirect political media that aims at marketing a particular ideology or striking an ideology. The theatrical text in this regard takes a political character that distinguishes its identity. It is a theatrical text that positively or negatively tackles an unjust or just authority. It is also a theater that sheds light on a poor, ignorant, backward society, urging it to achieve a qualitative economic and cultural leap. The theater that bases its texts on political themes is divided into three types (Al- Bishtawi, 2004: 10): 1. A reform political theater: This type of political theater presents constructive criticism and aims to correct implementation errors and ultimately leads to the consolidation of the prevailing system. 2. A revolutionary political theater: In its best form, it is a theater of calling for good, or, it is propaganda, at its worst form. It calls for the replacement of one political theory with another. 3. A real intellectual and political theater: a theater that presents several conflicting ideologies without the author's commitment to support a particular one. On the other hand, the theatrical text in (New Classics) retained its political media content, which aims to depict the political conflict and reveal its personal secrets. This is clearly indicated in the (Lord” play by Pier Corneille 1606-1684, which included murdering Shimin’s fatherby Rodrigue, Shimin’s boyfriend seeking revenge for slapping Rodrigue's father and cursing him by Shimin’s father due to a political dispute between them, which pushed Shimin to seek revenge from her father’s murderer, her boyfriend Rodrigue. In this instance, political media reveals the level of political conflicts between the ruling families, especially the lovers among them, who are motivated by revenge due to emotional situations to the point that Shimin declares that she is ready to get married to any man who kills her lover in revenge for the blood of her father. The text reveals the psychological conflict between the duty of political honor and passion, especially at the moment of fighting between the young man and Shimin’s lover. Rodrigue pretends to die in front of the young man. After returning back to her consciousness, she gives up everything in fulfillment of her love. The writer depicts the difficulty of the situation and the contradictions of the political revenge struggle (Corneille, 2012: 9-66). Thus, the theatrical text highlights an educational political media, analyzing the depth of the political conflict and the wound it leaves between the characters who love each
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other and creating a gap between two loving hearts, indicating the extent of the wreckage of the political conflict at the level of the soul and the state. Political media is also manifested in Shakespeare’s play (Julius Caesar) in the events of the play and the nature of the political conflict within the text. Perhaps, the most prominent of these events are the sermon of (Brutus) and the sermon of (Cassius) after the murder of Caesar, as Cassius’s sermon in the public community is considered as inflammatory political media. Cassius sought ) to incite people and control their feelings through the broadcasted political media that manipulated feelings and minds, and succeeded in inflaming the public’s feelings and their overwhelming desire to hear Caesar’s will through the sermon by his conspirators (Shakespeare, 1980: 15). Through the theatrical text, the role of political media, its influence on the public, and its potential to change the course of political events and upset the scales becomes clear. The beginnings of political media in the theatrical text appeared in Egypt through the texts of the playwright and journalist (YaqoubSanoua 1839-1912), who is one of the most prominent pillars of the Arab theater. He wrote numerous theatrical texts amounting to 36 theatrical texts whose various contents and ideas, including what dealt with political issues rejecting the occupation.Such texts were the first flashes of political media in the Arab theatrical text, which sharpened the determination to fight the occupation. He issued Abu NadharaZarqaa newspaper. It was a journalistic nickname that he hid behind. There was criticism of social life and criticism of political life. He was very embarrassed, very careful not to offend the Khedive, his entourage, or his government. Through these dialogues,the writer wanted to depict the extent of injustice and tampering with the lives of individuals (Abdah, 1953: 46). Analysis of the (Open the Doors) play (Ghazi, 2016: 5-60) Written by: Mithal Ghazi The story of the play: The play talks about a man imprisoned among three prisoners who have been absent for more than two decades in an underground basement. He completely lost his memory and he searches for himself amid the accumulations of life. He seeks to portray the political reality that he lived in an underground basement and how prisoners are treated by the repressive apparatus inside the prison, which is the nature of the suffering of the Iraqi individual in the era of the dictatorship. Analyzing the theatrical text: The theatrical text depicted the Iraqi political situation in the era of the dictatorial regime, including the arbitrary political practices and persecution of the people of the country, exposing those practices and pointing to the injustice and deprivation to which the Iraqi individual is subjected as a result of the behaviors of the successive policies that only seek to fulfill the desire of the authority. So, the theatrical text is filled with bitterness and pain, expressing the repressions of the Iraqi political situation, taking from its cruelty as a basis for political media depicting the extent of suffering and destruction inflicted on the Iraqi individual, which was directly reflected on the psyche of the individual that collapsed in front of the amount of pain and death that engulfed from every side.
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Maybe, I am a bone in one of the tombs that I have found to be We were bones that we didn't know each other. Am I a bone of a young man, or of a child, or of a man...? There are questions that were in the quarries of their skulls and the remains of traces of astonishment and amazement in a pile of ashes (Page: 47). The author also took a position in opposition to dictatorship and the policy of persecution and injustice. He expressed his own ideology in a political media that reflects an ideology that seeks to respect human rights and elevates the individual and demands his/her rights, equality, and freedom of the individual to live and respect his/her humanity and calls for liberation from the constraints of power. Every person has the right of a life that is full of dignity. Every person has the right to livewithout being oppressed(Page: 48). By presenting his ideology, the author calls for equal opportunities in a symbolic and sarcastic way to the authority that bears the bitterness of what the Iraqi individual has gone through as a result of the arbitrariness of the ruling authority.Political media is represented in the theatrical text, taking from the theory of freedom as a starting point for it in free writing, free expression, and criticism of authority without restriction. Through his text, the writer is not satisfied with restrictions and calls for liberation in action and speech and rejects the dominance of the dictatorial authority, not succumbing to its policies. At the same time, he rejects part of the formal partisan division that disperses the one nation. All doors are all the same with those phrases.... Gentlemen... It's nothing but banners of different colors and shapes... Why should this country wear all those colors like a clown, no taste for those colors? And let us admit that we were not brave enough to paint a picture on a wall (Page: 59). Political propaganda is manifested in the theatrical text through political media within the text as a means of pacifying the community. The author described, in a dramatic and symbolized way, the mechanisms of advertising promotion of the authority’s work and polishing its image. People like you are pure and righteous. It is pure to look into my eyes while you are so silent. This is because your honorable eyes couldprobe the essence of all things (Page: 40). The role of media disinformation, which was used on the people to drag them into wars with resonant slogans, was intended to mislead the people into standing with the
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authority and defending its policy against what contradicts its ideology. Therefore, disinformation was used as a means of political media to push the fighters towards the battlefield, while those who adopt the slogans withdrew from the battle. This is what the theatrical text states. Sir, please answer...they left behind nothing but an empty table and a phone Raised and one piece of paper written on it... Betrayal. This is how they went and left us for a war that exterminates heads. Let one head live among those heads (Page: 43). In the theatrical text, it is clear how the authority changed political media in its favor for the purpose of extending its influence and perpetuating the life of the authority through carrots and sticks to take control of matters to preserve its political gains and control the political situation in the country and the way to deal with the citizen’s problems. When the citizen suffers from a general problem, the authority offers a helping hand to calm him/her down, not according to what he/she wants, but according to what the authority wants. The authority seeks to calm the individual and the choice is presented to him/her to choose what brings him/her comfort and calm according to this perception through two options. Buy. What?... What is this? Soothing pills. But I don't have anything to buy with. Then, just take it... What are these?... they are bullets... It's lead sir, you may have forgotten too, it's not pills. Calm down, it's bullets... And why would someone like me need bullets? While he needs to calm down, what does this have to do with that? What does this have to do with me? (Page: 54-55). In another instance, the level of intimidation practiced by the authority through systematic coercive political media that provokes panic and terror among citizens and depicts the tyranny of the authority and its violent practices against its opponents
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generated cases of panic and apprehension among people and made it difficult to ask even about the name for fear of the consequences. I didn't dare to ask the jailer what my name, my color, or my address is… Maybe it was written that I should turn and turn. I keep spinning and turning, and there is no land or address (Page: 47). The revolutionary character of political media is employed in the theatrical text in an aesthetic way that is different from the traditional and classic style. The author called for revolution through a daily appearance that people are accustomed to, which is the appearance of the cleaner who sweeps what appears in front of him. He linked this daily event with the politician’s method by disqualifying his opponents. This man chose his broom as a revolutionary tool to remove me with his authority and tyranny from his path like any politician (Page: 41). Since the theatrical text can accommodate most literary genres in its presentation of its political media, this theatrical text involved telling the prison story as a novel that the writer tells through the prisoner as a means of political media to depict the amount of sacrifice and suffering experienced by the Iraqi individual inside prisons and the stories that were taking place Inside it and how prisoners are treated by the ruling power in the interrogation rooms. Conclusion 1.Political media is the engine of the political process, through which, regimes manage conflicts and political quarrels. Those regimes possess the tools of expression and change, which made it consistent with the goal of the Iraqi playwright in positive political change. 2. Literary genres, especially rhetoric, were of interest in the Iraqi theatrical textual employment because of its effective impact on enthusiasm and revolution and the dissemination of the intended political thought, in addition to the specificity that the theatrical text itself possesses that makes it one of the best means through which political media is circulated because of its artistic and aesthetic properties that harmonize feelings. 3. The Iraqi theatrical text treated the political situation with unconventional methods in order to smoothly convey its political media message to ensure its reach to the addressee, using allusions and modernization of history as theatrical broadcasts that give the pleasure of awareness-raising and confuse the control of the authority. 4. In the content of his theatrical texts, the Iraqi playwright resorted to the theory of media freedom in a more comprehensive way because it suits his ambitions and allows him freedom of expression.
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5. The Iraqi theatrical text, through the political media, chronicled the political history of Iraq, as it became a historical document and a reference guide for defining the Iraqi political situation for the period in which it is written. 6. Political media is consistent in the theatrical text according to many theories, including the theory of power, the theory of freedom, and the theory of democracy. 7. Political propaganda and its effective role in favor of the authority emerged in the theatrical text to polish the image of the ruler as a political marketing art. 8. The role of misleading public opinion and concealing the facts was manifested by concealing the bad role of the ruler and giving a good illusory role intended to mislead the true image of the ruler, by misleading the people to persuade them to wage war, while the role of misinformation was in concealing the political crime. References Abdah, I. (1953). Abu Al-Nadhara, the leader of the theater in Egypt 1839-1913, 1st edition, Library of Arts at Darb Al-Jamamiz, the Model Printing Press, Egypt. Al Mashaqba, B. (2015). Communication Theories, 1st edition, Dar Osama for Publishing and Distribution,Oman. Al-Bishtawi, Y. (2004). Intellectual and Aesthetic Implications in Political Theatre, 1st edition, Dar Al-Kindi for Publishing and Distribution, Jordan. Al-Hawari, S. (2021). Media Governance between Idiomatic and Legal Theorization and the Reality of Misinformation, 1st edition, Arab Democratic Center,Berlin, Germany. Allawi, J. (2014). Political Communication, 1st edition, Dar Amjad for Publishing and Distribution,Oman. Corneille, P. (2012). The Lord, Translated by: Khalil Mutran, Hendawi Foundation for Education and Culture, Cairo. Ehdadan, Z. (2014).An Introduction to Media and Communication Sciences, 5th edition,Diwan of University Publications,Algeria. Ghazi, M. (2016).Yusef's Blood, Five Plays, 1st edition, House of General Cultural Affairs, Baghdad. Ibrahim, M. and Abbas, I. (2019).Principles of Political Science, 1st edition, National Library,Sudan. Maarik, P.(2012). Media Campaign and Political Marketing, 1st Edition, Translated by: Abdulhakam Ahmed Al-Khuzami, Dar Al-Fajr for Publishing and Distribution, Cairo. Shakespeare, W. (1980).Julius Caesar, Translated by: Khalil Mutran The Egyptian General Publishing Corporation, Cairo.
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