• blackbrook
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    9 months ago

    The audience for Newsweek is lay people not ecologists. It’s completely predictable that this usage of the word would create misunderstanding. Seems like misleading clickbait to me with a cover of plausible deniability.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      Obviously, but that doesn’t mean they don’t interview ecologists or biologists. “Extirpation” is way less layman friendly than “locally extinct,” and the article makes it extremely clear that this is an animal that hadn’t been seen in a specific region for years. Skimming the headline and deciding it means “they thought it was completely extinct” is a problem with the reader, not the headline or the term “locally extinct.”

      • blackbrook
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        9 months ago

        The title doesn’t say “locally extinct”. Do you really not understand how click bait titles work and why they are shitty?

        • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          9 months ago

          You know I guess you have a point, if they’re writing for people who are too dim to realize “locally extinct” and “extinct in region” are the same concept.