The Research on the Communication Features of Michael Jordan’s Documentary the Last Dance

Abstract

As the well-deserved GOAT of the NBA, Michael Jordan and his Bulls team left the best of the NBA in the 1990s and also promoted the NBA to the whole world. But unfortunately, many young fans have never gotten the opportunity to see Jordan play though wearing Jordan's sneakers. The emergence of The Last Dance presented the audience with a most realistic Jordan including his many dark sides, and eventually achieved great success in the field of sports documentaries. This paper will use the example of The Last Dance to explore the characteristics of documentary film distribution in the network age, including how it has been successful and what still needs to be improved. These studies will be of great help to documentary filmmakers as well as any communication researcher. By looking at the narrative approach of The Last Dance, the hottest topics about The Last Dance on social media, the timing of The Last Dance's release, and The Last Dance's ratings in the Chinese market. This research found that The Last Dance used a relatively clever narrative technique that interspersed secondary thread and backstories with the main thread, and that The Last Dance also gained more attention by revealing an unknown side of Jordan, in addition, The Last Dance was released during the NBA lockout, however due to the timing of the Chinese television broadcast and political reasons, The Last Dance failed to sell well in the Chinese market.