In the context of the international conference ’Exploring Permafrost in a Future World – XI International Conference on Permafrost (IOCP )’ in Potsdam from 20 to 24 June 2016, the DEKRA University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM developed a Social Media concept specifically tailored to the conference. The guiding theme for the project was the research focus of REKLIM’s Topic 3: regional climate changes in the Arctic and its permafrost regions. The goal of the project was to give students from the media sciences the opportunity to prepare media coverage for other young people; beyond the subject matter itself, the ’from young people, for young people’ aspect was a unique selling point for the project. As such, the young journalists and filmmakers in the team were given the chance to experience the true value of their profession at different levels: aspects like responsibility and ethics were reflected at both the content and target-group levels. In preparation for the project, during the winter semester 2015/2016 the participating students created a communication concept, which they subsequently presented to the local organising committee for approval. At the same time, three courses for seminars from the degree programme ’Television & Film’ produced short films on the topic of ’permafrost’ in the context of the conference. In this regard, researchers from REKLIM and the AWI Permafrost Working Group in Potsdam visited the DEKRA University of Applied Sciences in Berlin to share their expertise on various aspects of permafrost research with students in the seminar ’Material Development’. In two other courses, the resulting ideas were then developed into a script and ultimately put into film, culminating in the three short films ’Devoted to Science’, ’The Researcher’ and ’The Ice of the Earth’. A total of 21 students from the disciplines Journalism (with the specialisations Online Journalism and Television Journalism / Moderation) and Television & Film (from the specialisations Camera and Film Editing) took part in the Social Media project to accompany the ICOP. For future journalists, the chance to provide media coverage for a conference of this scope – during which more than 800 top researchers from around the globe shared the latest information on permafrost – is what they would call a major ’scoop’. The students were given the important task of transforming the scientific content into a journalistic and ’young’ language, of considering the problems discussed from an unbiased perspective, and of integrating the researchers into their efforts. The result: important dialogues and learning processes between the different disciplines involved. In addition, the ‘Online Journalism’ students developed and were responsible for an E-Magazine they created especially for the conference (’The Chicken Theory ’”), which they successively filled with interviews, reports, commentaries, photos etc. as the conference progressed. ’The Chicken Theory’ was a ’brand’ created by the students themselves. During the event, the ‘Best -of-Day’ video team produced interview segments and recordings of talks / presentations and discussions, accompanied the participants during the social programme etc., so as to ultimately provide a compilation of the highlights, including a 4- to 6-minute-long ’recap’ for each day of the conference. The videos were first shown to the participants in the main conference hall, offering them an exclusive sneak peek. ICOP Teams:
Coordinators: Dr Klaus Grosfeld and Dr Renate Treffeisen
Editorial team for "The Chicken Theory", headed by Dr Tong-Jin Smith Sakina Al-Mozany, Tobias Eßer, Steve Reutter, Jonas Schönfelder, Annabelle Wohlrath
Production team for the "Best-of-Day" videos, headed by Florian Mettke
Moderation/interviews: Catalina Grobe Fernandes, Melanie Köppel
Editors: Claudia Marlene Kühling, Sarah Langhoff, Linda Rottler, Antonia Witt
Camera: Linda Gleß, Ben Hartkopp, Vitali Kirsch, Theresa Knuth, Christopher Land, Katrin Nelles
Film editing: Jonna Besgulow, Julian Bobrow, Kevin Keru Link to the permafrost film More information on activities within the framework of the Media Project at the ICOP 2016: Best of Day Videos
Medienprojekt on Facebook
Medienprojekt on Twitter
Medienprojekt on Instagram The resulting short film “Devoted to Science” (Germany 2016, 6 minutes) by Ron Jäger has since been shown at the following festivals:
Social Machinery Film Festival, Ostiglia, Italy, 30 July 2016
Social Machinery Film Festival - Semi Finalist Screening, Altomonte  Italy, 26 August 2016 

Short Cut Film Festival, Inđija, Serbia, September 11, 2016
Llanberris Adventure & Mountain Film Festival, 3 to 5 March 2017