Production intimately connects audience and socio-historical context.

The artifact's production relies on public opinion, defined within a certain socio-historical context for a certain audience.

"Ray", produced independently by Los Angeles documentarian Taylor Hackford and funded by conservative billionaire Phillip Anschutz, faced competing interests in its production. Anschutz' appeal to mainstream, primarily white audiences contradicts Hackford's appeal to primarily African American audiences. Anschutz' aim for PG-13 ratings contradicted Hackford's desire for an accurate depiction of Charles' heroin addiction and womanizing tendencies.

Competing interests in the production of Ray influenced how it portrayed Charles' heroin addiction. Despite Hackford's racial sensitivity that ensured an almost entirely black cast and collaboration with black writers, his documentary roots relied on expert knowledge rooted in racist policy.

The race of a drug user effects the narrative perceived about them. Media represents and reinforces this, evident in the eventual criminalization of Ray Charles' heroin addiction in Ray and the comparatively empathetic conversation of the addictions among the Red Hot Chili Peppers' members.

This section incorporates multiple sources to explore the hierarchies that exist within the production industry, specifically discriminatory ideologies that influenced the production of Ray, as well as the racial aspect of how drug addiction is portrayed in the media.