The four man team at Sangat TV out did the bigger channels with their coverage of the riots. Should we be surprised?

The style of journalism was thought to be long gone but the team at Sangat TV have proved all it takes for journalists to do what they do best…get amongst the action.

Sangat TV, which is broadcast on Sky channel 847, delivered what viewers wanted and even ended up helping a policeman travel to a scene of disruption.

Their footage was rebroadcast on CNN, BBC and news providers in India.

The coverage by our 24 news channels over the past week has been over taken by debate and discussion. But what these channels did not realise was people wanted to hear from real people at grassroots level. And no matter how hard they try to bring in commentators with ‘street cred’ just wasn’t the same.

There lack of coverage at street level may have been borne out by the fact that their equipment was attacked in the first two days of the riots. People hated the big corporations and had little respect for them.

But should this have stopped them. If the TV channels wanted real news they could have had hired an army of community reporters at short notice.

What the Sangat TV team did prove however that maybe the traditional Indian method of getting a good story is most likely the best. To put it simply…get a camera…get your friend to drive and think about the consequences later.