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Reenactments in News
Reenactments on television of real-life events have been used for decades to dramatize and publicize true-crime stories. “Crime-stoppers”-type programs typically show unsolved crimes, with appeals to the audience to call in with information that might help the police. Program producers work closely with the local police to gain access to information about the crimes, decide together what crimes to feature, what details to show, and what to keep from the public. Actors reenact the crime before the camera, using locations and props as similar as possible to the originals. Actors are chosen to resemble the victim, the witnesses, and the description(s) of the perpetrator(s).
The first series broadcasting reenactments of real-life crimes started in 1967 in West Germany. This program, Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst (File XY… Unsolved) ...