Media madness as Jacinda Ardern arrives at Fieldays

I gave it my best shot. It’s safe to say that Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern’s arrival at Fieldays sparked a mad media frenzy. 

I managed to get amongst all the fuss for the better half of an hour. To her security guards’ amusement, my reporting of her arrival nearly saw me get knocked out by the Newshub camera. 

We were told that she would be making an appearance at 10am on the second day of Fieldays; she was an hour late. 

While we waited in the Pavilion, I cosied up to the “big time” journos down there and was even presented with a job offer – make sure the cameraman doesn’t run into anyone or anything. 

Everyone was there waiting on her, One News, Waikato Times and even ABC News Australia who were here awaiting the arrival of her baby. Even the public started to catch on and gathered around. 

The biggest question while we were all waiting was, which door was she coming in? TV news though she was coming in bay 2 and the Waikato Times thought she was arriving through the main door. 

We waited and waited until suddenly I saw one of my classmates, Horiana, run in a hurry around the corner – out of all us media she had spotted where Ardern was coming from, one bay down from where we were waiting. 

The aim was to find story but even being in the middle of the media scrum, I still could not hear a word she was saying. 

I could barely get close enough to get a good picture of her with her staunch security guard at times standing front and centre. One kind cameraman eventually let me hop in front of him – I was in a prime position now, pretty much in her face if she didn’t have security. 

I stayed at it for a little while but after backing into a pamphlet stand and nearly getting hit by a camera I eventually got pushed out to the back of the pack and decided to retreat to the media centre. 

This small time student journo was no match to the big time media pushing and shoving their way around down there for the best lead.