WiNK

Journalism Students Meet Shaw Brown, Live From Qatar

by: Teddy Porter & Brayan Tenesaca

On Tuesday, November 29, just a few hours before the United States played in the World Cup, Journalism students had the opportunity to join a Zoom call from a Wooster parent in Qatar for the 2022-23 World Cup. Shaw Brown, father of 7th grader Ian Brown, joined the call from the Al Thumama Stadium, where he is working for Telemundo, to talk about his exciting experiences in Qatar and his job.

Brown is an Emmy award winning producer in global sports. Throughout his career, he has traveled to over 40 countries and has been to 8 men's World Cups and 6 women's World Cups. Brown said he wanted to be a professional soccer player, but wasn't able to, self-declaring that he "wasn't good enough." Instead, he decided to take a job in the sports media and travel worldwide; meeting, interviewing, and directing camera angles for national television. His first taste of the World Cup came from an internship where he worked at the 1994 USA World Cup. During the call, Brown stated that the 2010 South Africa World Cup was a "Special World Cup."

Brown's job ranges from giving statistics and updates to announcers to making sure cameras are perfect for our screens back home. His advice for people interested in his job was that his career is enjoyable, but you have to work hard. When you make mistakes along the way, be honest, don't let them get in your way, and love what you do. Doing his job hasn't affected his love for soccer because he still gets to enjoy the games. Although he can do his job in the stadium, he prefers being in the truck because he loves to work the cameras. The TV truck is equipped with 40-50 monitors with different camera angles and allows him to avoid the stadium noise.

As he joined the call, his camera pointed to a beautiful view of the World Cup field, and hundreds of different computers surrounded him. All of these computers were stationed there for more than 1,000 journalists from all over the world doing the same job that he does. The people who produce the Australian and German TV stations were sitting near him. He's been loving the stadium temperature because of how warm it is in Qatar during this World Cup. A student asked him about his experience in Qatar. He said his experience in Qatar hadn't been that different from other World Cups except for Qatar's restrictions. He told us about how he likes the new VAR system. Goals are rare in soccer, so when there is a goal, it is essential to know if the goal should count. VAR has changed a lot since he's been doing his job, but he has no complaints about the new system.

Some of the players that he has been enjoying have been Richarlison (Brazil's striker), Gavi (Spain's midfielder), and Messi (Argentina's center forward). Right now, he thinks Richarlison will win the player of the tournament because of his performances so far. He has scored the goal of the tournament, and he can't wait to see how he can finish the tournament. He said that Gavi had the best performance of the tournament because, against Costa Rica, he scored a goal and played extraordinarily well in the midfield in his first World Cup as an 18-year-old. He believes that no matter what, Messi could win player of the tournament if Argentina wins the World Cup, although he thinks that Brazil will win it all. A debate has been going on for a while: who is better, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? Brown said that if he were to take one of these players in a big game, he would take Ronaldo. He has met many famous soccer players doing what he does for a living. He has crossed paths with David Beckham and even one of the greatest players ever, Pele. He also gets to meet many players who are playing in the tournament.

Brown is always thinking ahead, and on top of covering the World Cup, he just made a documentary called Good Rivals. The documentary is about the rivalry between Mexico and the USA soccer team. After a year of work, he thinks everyone will enjoy it because it is fascinating to see how much these two teams hate each other. Good Rivals was released on Amazon Prime earlier this week.

When he had to get back to work, we thanked him for this experience he gave us. The conversation was an enjoyable time for the class because no one would have guessed that one day we would be getting a call from someone working in the biggest tournament in the world.