Panel Discussion on the Rhetorical Structure of Journalistic News Regarding His Holiness the Pope’s Visit to Iraq, Organized by the UNESCO Chair

In collaboration with the English Language Department at the Faculty of Languages, the
UNESCO Chair organized a panel discussion on the rhetorical structure of journalistic news
regarding the visit of His Holiness the Pope to Iraq. Dr. Musaab Abdul Zahra Al-Khazaali, a
member of the UNESCO Chair, presented a research paper titled "The Rhetorical Structure
of Journalistic News about the Visit of His Holiness the Pope to Iraq" on Monday, March 11,
2024, at the Faculty of Languages auditorium.
He discussed the rhetorical textual structure of news in international newspapers such as
The Times, The Independent, and The New York Times, and how religious news is
conveyed and presented. The Mann and Thompson model was adopted for analyzing
rhetorical discourse, covering introduction, content, and conclusion. Journalistic coverage of
the Pope's visit to the holy city of Najaf and his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
was observed, wherein journalists employed various textual rhetorical strategies including
praise, veneration, empathy, conveying prayers, and supplications, as well as expressions of
religious quotations. Additionally, expressions of wishes, emotional expressions, and
dialectical expressions such as cause and effect, examples, and intricate organization of
religious sermons were used, parts of which were included in the news articles. Expressions
of appreciation and respect in describing Iraq and religious authority and their role in
safeguarding religious coexistence and diversity, especially in rejecting the persecution
faced by Christians in Iraq following the entry of terrorist organizations like ISIS, and their
stance against the prohibition of shedding Iraqi blood regardless of origin, ethnicity, religion,
or belief, were also highlighted.
The circulated news successfully conveyed the message of the visit and the historical
meeting, expressing tolerance, peace, rejection of extremism, and insistence on preserving
humanity worldwide.