Contributions of the Political Economy of Communication to Johan Galtung’s Triangle of Violence. Communication, Hegemony, and Peace as a Counter-Hegemonic Epistemological Project

A critical reinterpretation of Johan Galtung’s triangle of violence is proposed from the perspective of the political economy of communication, aiming to clarify the status of communication and culture in peace studies. Although Galtung’s model provides a multidimensional understanding of violence (direct, structural, cultural), and acknowledges the interaction between its dimensions, communication remains predominantly associated with a legitimising function and is not systematically theorised as a material structure or organised field of power. Through a theoretical discussion, it is argued that media systems, communication policies and technological infrastructures operate as conditions that shape the production, administration and visibility of violence. From this perspective, three communicational limits of the model are identified, and a re-specification is proposed that integrates the performative, structural and institutional dimensions of communication, in line with the notion of positive peace. On this basis, peace communication is conceptualised as a counter-hegemonic epistemological project, oriented towards communicative justice, the critique of media structures and a situated praxis of social transformation. Finally, the Manifesto for Peace Media is analysed as a situated intervention that illustrates the implications of the proposed framework.