Media Multiplexity in The Last Dance

The Last Dance is an uncensored documentary series about Michael Jordan’s career, and it specifically highlights the last season that the Bulls’ super-team was intact. Michael Jordan was a household name all throughout the 90s. In fact, he was one of the most famous people not only in the United States but on the entire globe towards the end of his tenure with the Bulls. However, back then social media was nonexistent and television was the main channel of communication. The cameras that were used inside the locker rooms and behind closed doors showed how players and coaches truly communicated during that time. Because social media was nonexistent, no one knew for sure what all would go down in between games and press conferences. This documentary series provided audiences with a new perspective on Michael Jordan, the Bulls’ players and front office, and the relationships that developed between them all.

A channel is something we use to communicate with somebody. This could be a phone, mail, email, a text message, Facebook, etc. We have countless channels available to us nowadays thanks to technology. We develop weak ties with people, and we maintain strong ties with people through communicating with them through the various channels made available to us. A weak tie is, “a relationship involving a small investment of time and emotional energy, such as an acquaintance” (159). A strong tie is, “a relationship involving a large investment of time and emotional energy, such as a close friend” (159). These tie strengths determine what channels are used and how many different channels are used. The term media multiplexity illustrates that, “whether a pair chose email, instant messaging, or some other medium didn’t matter much—at least as far as the strength of their relationship. Instead, what differentiated strong ties from weak ties was the number of media the pair employed. Greater tie strength seemed to drive greater numbers of media used” (161).

Michael Jordan maintained strong ties with every teammate he respected. This is demonstrated in the documentary series when his teammate Dennis Rodman went out on the town for a few days during the middle of the season. If any of Michael Jordan’s teammates that he did not respect decided to leave in the middle of the season to go party for a few days, he would have berated them. Jordan knew that Rodman was a very consistent player who played his role very well, so whenever he decided that he would go out to Las Vegas for a few days to party, Jordan said that it was just Rodman being Rodman. However, examples of media multiplexity occurred when Jordan would talk with his parents not only through phone calls, but through letters and fax machine as well. He would utilize multiple channels to maintain those stronger ties he had with his family. Jordan did the same thing with his coach, as he would go into Coach Jackson’s office very often to communicate his thoughts on how the team was doing and where he thought they should be in their journey to bring Chicago more championships. An example of a weaker tie was illustrated between Jordan and the General Manager of the Bulls. Michael Jordan and Jerry Krause were not on good terms by the 1997-1998 season. Jordan would ignore him and sometimes even insult him in person whenever he saw him. They would both use as few channels as possible to communicate with one another. Despite the nonexistence of social media, the media multiplexity theory still applies to that era because there were still many channels of communication that Michael Jordan and people in the 90s utilized to maintain relationships of both strong and weak ties.