Answer:
Agenda-setting is essentially a competition for a limited resource: attention.
As James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers point out in Agenda-Setting (1996), proponents of specific issues are constantly competing to gain the attention of the media, the public, and the policy makers. Dearing and Rogers also point out that scarcity of attention is a factor in agenda-setting. In one national study, researchers gave individuals a chance to name as many "important issues" as they wished-and most named only four or five. So if the public agenda (the concerns of average citizens) contains a limited number of items, agenda-setting is a "zero sum" game: In order for one issue to appear the agenda, it must push another off.
Therefore, if people in your community and the local media are currently focused on incidents of teenage drug use, you'll have to work doubly hard to get adult literacy on the radar screen.
Ensure understanding of the issue and its importance.
Awareness of an issue is only the beginning. People may understand that it exists, but not understand its implications. They may feel that it doesn't really matter, that it only affects a few people or places far away, or that there's really no proof of its effects.
The next step is to explain the issue clearly; whom it affects and how it works, where it is encountered, and what the significance is. If provided good information, citizens and public officials will realize that the issue is serious.
In his presentations, the adult literacy program director spoke about the effects of literacy issues on the community as well as on those who struggled with them. The loss to the community, he explained, was as great as the loss to the affected adults themselves. People with literacy problems were often working in low-skilled, poorly-paid jobs, resulting in a lower community tax base. Local employers were less able to be competitive, because they couldn't find workers with the skills to quickly learn new procedures or new jobs. Fewer and less-informed voters meant fewer community decisions based on good information and consideration of the alternatives available. And, perhaps most telling of all, the children of those with low skill levels often had difficulty in school, perpetuating the pattern.
Once people understood these aspects of the issue, they were much more likely to take it seriously, and to ask whether it was a problem in their own community.
Generate concern about the issue.
Once people are aware of and understand issues, the next step is to foster concern about them. This involves making sure that people understand how issues affect them directly or indirectly, and play out in their communities. It's when they realize their own link to the issue that they'll begin to see it as something that's not only serious, but that needs to be addressed locally.