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RA3: Carnival Cruise Lines "Carnival Cruise Campaign Focuses on First Timers" -Newman, A. (2011). Carnival cruise campaign focuses on first timers. The New York                                  times, B(2), 2. "Carnival at a Glance" - Carnival at a glance. (2012, January 17). The Guardian, p. Pg. 22.

These two articles about Carnival cruise lines are essentially all about how they are developing as an economic powerhouse. The Article "Carnival at a Glance", discusses the varying aspects of Carnival's financial assets. The article describes how they are the world's biggest cruise operator, with eleven brands that operate 98 ships with 191,000 berths, with Europe as their central location for business, generating 38% of its $14.4 million in revenues in 2010, with Genoa-based Costa Crociere the largest brand there. The second article is all about how Carnival is using the media to target their customers. Their target audience, as described by the article, are people new to the prospect of cruising, as people who have never cruised before are the most likely purchase tickets to undertake a voyage.

Evaluate a Wikipedia Article (RA:4)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison A. The content difference is varying between the Wikipedia article, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History entry of John Harrison, the inventor of the chronometer. As far as size is concerned, the Wikipedia article contains a much larger expanse of information then the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. Though the Wikipedia article tends to drift on to relating topics in some areas instead of staying entirely focused on the main one, while the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime history offers information directly relevant to the main topic, while offering references to relating topics throughout the text. When it comes to information regarding John Harrison, the text is relatively similar in its information. Dates, names, events, background, etc, all seem to be of equal if not somewhat less similarity. The big difference would be the way that the information is provided in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, which seems to be written towards a target audience of scholars, rather than Wikipedia’s approach, at targeting the average person. B. Wikipedia has always been the target of criticism regarding its reliability in sources. With one of its five pillars being “Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute,” it’s hard to cite a source that comes from a place that allows ‘anyone’ to edit it. However, Wikipedia has taken serious steps to prevent the misuse of their encyclopedia, and at the bottom of every article lies a vast compendium of sources that were used to create the article. Using Wikipedia’s featured article criteria, the article on John Harrison met the majority of criteria, except for very slightly missing out on one. The article is well-written, comprehensive, well-researched, presents a neutral view, is stable and not undergoing any ‘edit wars’ as Wikipedia refers to them, has a lead, an appropriate structure, consistent citations, and uses the media in appropriate situations. The only criteria that it missed out on, is its focus on the main topic, because there were a few occasions during my reading where I found myself looking over information that didn’t really seem relevant. C. The article is written very well, and save for a few occasions where it seemed to very slightly drift away from the main topic, it was very sound in its structure, and seemed to provide clear and concise information regarding John Harrison. One of the very interesting things I learned from this article was the large number of inventions that were credited to him, “He invented the gridiron pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled so that the different expansions and contractions cancel each other out. Another example of his inventive genius was the grasshopper escapement – a control device for the step-by-step release of a clock's driving power. Developed from the anchor escapement, it was almost frictionless, requiring no lubrication because the pallets were made from the wood lignum vitae.” (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses/Information_Fluency (Class Page)

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