Marginalized disappearances: Shaping the power relations of the search for the missing.

This article examines the Polish public television programme *Ktokolwiek widział, ktokolwiek wie* ("Has anybody seen, does anybody know"), which has, since 1996, worked to promote a more egalitarian visibility and search for missing persons in Poland, particularly focusing on the marginalized missing—individuals socially excluded prior to their disappearance. The programme employs human-interest storytelling to frame all missing persons as worthy of search and empathy, mobilizing viewers, pressuring police authorities to act, and conducting its own investigations to support families often neglected by mainstream media and law enforcement. While the programme has contributed to finding some missing individuals and raising public awareness, its impact varies, with many cases remaining unresolved; nonetheless, it challenges social and institutional invisibility by symbolically re-presenting the marginalized missing and advocating for their legal and social recognition. This case highlights broader issues of media representation, social marginalization, and institutional responsibility in the search for missing persons within contemporary societies.