Jonas Brothers Concert Stampede Footage Goes Viral, Major News Networks Cover The Story

By Tara Graham

May 15

The Jonas Brothers launched their 2010 world tour by giving a free concert at The Grove in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 15, 2010. Over 25,000 adoring fans showed up and made a mad rush for the stage, trampling over each other and security barriers in the process. Chaos ensued, but no injuries were reported. I was there to capture the madness on my smartphone (see above). Nick and Joe Jonas retweeted her video, and it quickly went viral.

A wave of YouTube activity washed over my e-mail inbox.

The video footage was later used in a CBS news report, in which I was interviewed as an eyewitness. (CBS Air Date: May 16, 2010)

NBC Los Angeles ran a story on its website. Then NBC’s “Sunday L.A.” morning news program invited me to participate in a sit-down interview and segment on citizen journalism. (NBC Air Date: May 23, 2010)

Nearly three years later, ABC’s primetime news magazine program, “20/20,” aired an investigative report on social behavior and crowd chaos that featured the stampede footage. (ABC Air Date: Apr. 26, 2013, Episode: “In An Instant”).

Reporting

The Narrative #Selfie

Lose the shirt off my back? Nah.

When life got dicey, I opened my closet doors, bypassed the blouses, and earned a (modest) payday by selling used hangers in 25-pack bundles.

More recently, I put my hustle into play at 500 Startups, the world’s most active venture capital fund and startup accelerator, where I led content, branding, marketing, operations, and corporate partnerships for business development and global programs.

Before transitioning into tech, I worked in higher education, teaching online research and media production classes across a variety of disciplines at the University of California, Berkeley. During that time, I also worked as the Director and Executive Producer of Digital Media Projects at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, where I co-founded and led The #GlobalPOV Project, a mixed-media approach to thinking about poverty, inequality, and undertaking poverty action.

In addition, I was the Director of Media at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, where I had the opportunity to interview Bashar al-Assad in his presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, in late December of 2010. I asked Assad if he considered himself a dictator. He dodged the inquiry, but his actions in the immediate weeks, months, and years to follow answered the question . . . and then some. Sadly.

Before that, I was a practicing journalist and graduate fellow at the University of Southern California. During that time, I worked as a web reporter and photographer for KCET’s “SoCal Connected,” as an online editor for the London-based New Statesman magazine, and as the co-editor-in-chief of USC Annenberg’s award-winning digital news website. I got my start in journalism as a full-time associate editor (and employee #20!) at P✪PSUGAR, a Sequoia-backed content and commerce startup turned global media empire.

My freelance reporting has been featured in NBC, CBS, and ABC news broadcasts and in online publications, including The Huffington Post. I have also done manuscript editing for various authors with recognized commercial and university presses.