IGNOU MNML 012 Practical for MAJDM: Step-by-Step Portfolio Guide (July 2026 Manual)

How the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical works for MAJDM learners, start to finish

The IGNOU MNML 012 Practical is built, not sat: you report and produce seven pieces of digital journalism, handwrite them into one bound Production Portfolio and hand it to your Study Centre, and that portfolio is the whole term-end examination. This guide takes MAJDM and PGDIDM learners through each activity in a working order.

Everything here follows the MNML012 manual marked “Applicable from July 2026 onwards”, under which nothing has to be published on medialit.in or any news website.

A twelve-week plan that works back from the last date

Each piece of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical needs reporting time, and the video and the X posts carry dates that show when the work happened. With 30 September 2026 gone, the next last date is 30 April 2027, for the June 2027 term-end examination. Twelve weeks back from it means starting by early February 2027 at the latest.

MNML 012 is an 8-credit course, so its practical fee is Rs 500, the prospectus amount for practicals of more than 4 credits, and it goes in with your term-end examination form. The manual advises paying only once your preparation is checked, since the fee counts for that one examination.

Most learners we meet start late: in our records, 70 to 80 percent become active only in the final month before a submission date. For MNML-012, that single month would have to hold a three-minute recording, eight dated posts and a backgrounder resting on ten or more sources.

A late start costs the hours needed to do the work yourself. MNML-012 asks for work you reported during your registration, and seven activities do not fit into a weekend.

Writing MNML 012 story ideas: the 5 Ws, 1 H, an angle and three sources

Activity 1 of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical is worth 25 marks, 5 for each idea. Each runs to about 100 words, answers who, what, when, where, why and how, names your angle and lists three or more sources. The manual sets no topic list, so choose events you can actually reach.

1. Write the event in one line, as you would pitch it to an editor.
2. Answer the 5 Ws and 1 H in short factual sentences.
3. State the angle: what is new, or who is affected.
4. List the sources by role (official, document, person affected) and confirm you can reach each.
5. Count the words and put the figure in brackets at the end.

Ideas taken from widely shared material tend to land on the same topic as other learners’ work, and repeated topics are a common reason work comes back. The MNML-012 manual requires every piece to be your own, reported by you while registered.

Three inverted pyramid stories and the MNML 012 backgrounder

Activities 2 and 3 of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical carry 40 marks together. Each full story needs 450 words or more in the inverted pyramid, with five or more external news links at the end; the backgrounder needs 800 words or more from at least ten sources and must have been relevant when written. Treat each count as a floor and stay within 10 percent above it.

1. Lead: who did what, where and when, in one or two sentences.
2. Next: the most important consequence, then the why.
3. Middle: quotes from the people you spoke to, named with their role.
4. End: background a reader could skip, so the story can be cut from the bottom.
5. Below: the numbered links, then the word count in brackets.

Print each link in this shape: 1. Title of the source page, accessed 12 January 2027, https://[complete address]. A shortened link, or a word that is only coloured and underlined, cannot be opened from paper. The manual is silent on whether the link list counts as words, so count the story text and keep the list visibly separate.

For the MNML 012 backgrounder, collect the figures first in a table with the source number beside each, then write. Keep it a separate piece: the manual evaluates no work, or part of it, more than once, so text reused from a story earns nothing the second time.

A question we hear often is what shape the written work should take. For the MNML-012 stories the manual names it: inverted pyramid, links at the end, the count in brackets.

Drafts produced with an AI chatbot before anyone reads the guidelines rarely fit the course. In MNML-012 generative AI may not write your stories, backgrounder or review at all, and any use of such a tool is declared in Annexure II.

The infographic and the recording, done on a phone

Activities 4 and 5 of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical are seen rather than read. The infographic (5 marks) uses publicly available data; the video or audio story (10 marks) is recorded on a phone you own and uploaded to your own YouTube channel.

1. Infographic: pick one public dataset and one finding, give it a headline that states the finding, print on a full A4 page (colour where colour means something) with the source and access date directly below.
2. Recording: script it, record three minutes or more, and time it before upload.
3. Upload: the description lists your name, enrolment number and MNML012; visibility is Public or Unlisted, never Private.
4. Test: open the link signed out on a second phone, then make a QR code of the full URL and scan it.
5. Print the URL, the QR code, the title, the duration and the upload date on the activity page.

Keep the video live until your MNML012 result is out; a dead link at evaluation earns nothing.

Running the X account for Activity 6

Activity 6 of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical is marked on content writing and on the posts or designs. Open the account with your enrolment number, keep it public until evaluation and share your Activity 1 to 5 work from it. The file holds eight readable screenshots, two or more per page; every one must show the handle, post date and text, and carry a line under it saying which activity it belongs to.

Work logged in one sitting at the end gives itself away: repeated wording, and no progress from the first entry to the last. On MNML-012 every screenshot must show the date of the post, so the evaluator sees those dates.

Writing the MNML 012 news portal review in 500 words

The last activity of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical is a 500-word review of any one news portal, worth 10 marks. The manual fixes five points; a word budget stops one point from swallowing the rest.

Assembling the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical file

The physical rules of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical are where finished work gets sent back. Assemble in this order:

1. Type the Annexure I cover and the Annexure II declaration, as both say to; fill every cover entry, including the medium.
2. Sign the declaration and, on its last line, name any AI tool you used and its purpose.
3. Add the Annexure III award sheet untouched, the index, and photocopies of your identity card and the MNML012 fee receipt.
4. Put a divider page naming just the activity number and title in front of each activity.
5. Number pages at the bottom centre from the page after the cover; enrolment number top right on each.
6. Bind two copies, spiral or soft, never loose sheets or a sleeve file. Submit one; keep one until the result.

An unsigned certificate is one of the plainest faults we see in practical files. In MNML-012 the page that needs your signature is the Annexure II declaration, right after the cover.

Some learners hand in their work without any acknowledgement. When the MNML-012 portfolio goes to your Study Centre, ask for one and keep it with your second copy.

Seven mistakes that cost marks, and the fix for each

Each breaks a rule of the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical manual, and each is cheap to fix before binding.

• Video Private, or removed early. Fix: Public or Unlisted, live until the result.
• Links as coloured words or short addresses. Fix: full URL, title and access date, numbered.
• No word count, or far over the minimum. Fix: trim to within 10 percent and bracket the figure.
• One piece used for two activities. Fix: separate pieces; nothing is marked twice.
• English and Hindi mixed. Fix: one language, the one on the cover.
• Loose sheets or unnumbered pages. Fix: spiral or soft binding, numbers at the bottom centre.
• Cover, declaration or a photocopy missing. Fix: add all four; without them the file may come back unevaluated.

Source lists that ignore the set format are a regular find when we check files. For MNML-012 the format sits in the manual, which makes it the easiest mark to protect.

Online learners: the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical as one LMS PDF

In PGDIDMOL or MAJDMOL, the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical goes through the Learning Management System. Content and order rules stay the same.

1. Scan every page in the printed order, the smallest handwriting readable, the infographic in colour.
2. Merge into one PDF of 25 MB or less.
3. Name it in the manual’s pattern: 2401234567_MNML012.pdf, with your own enrolment number.
4. Open the final file page by page before uploading, and keep a copy.

Online uploads go wrong in familiar ways: a half-finished file, several files in place of one, a first page with wrong details. For MNML-012 the LMS takes one PDF in the printed order, and the page-by-page check in step 4 catches all three.

Send your own portfolio pages for a check

If your IGNOU MNML 012 Practical pages are drafted, we check your own work against the July 2026 manual before the fair copy: word windows, link format, the review points, file order, cover and declaration entries and, online, the PDF name and size. We mark what to fix; you make the changes in your own words. We do not write stories, record videos or run accounts.

Practical file checks are quoted on WhatsApp at +91 93546 37830 (Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 6 pm). Other services are on our services and charges page.

Questions while you build the portfolio

Finishing the IGNOU MNML 012 Practical on time

The IGNOU MNML 012 Practical rewards working in sequence: ideas, then stories and data, then the visual pieces, the posts and the review, with the file assembled only when every activity exists. Keep dated material as you go, and every page will be one you can explain.

The learners who finish well share a few habits: an early start, rules confirmed at their own centre, dated work kept along the way, and pages they can explain in their own words. MNML-012 builds the dating into the manual itself, through post dates on X, access dates beside links and the video’s upload date.

For the MAJDM theory books behind this work, see the reference material for this course on our publication site. The second-year Internet Research Project has its own MNMP-012 guide.

Documents behind this guide

• MNML012 practical manual (Digital Journalism Practical), SOJNMS, IGNOU, applicable from July 2026 onwards; copy read in full, listed on eGyanKosh.
• IGNOU Common Prospectus July 2026: section 3.63 (MAJDM, where MNML 012 is the 8-credit first-year practical), section 8.26 (PGDIDM) and the practical examination fee rules.

ignouproject.com is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. We check the learner’s own drafts and point out corrections; the learner remains the author of every story, recording, post and page in the portfolio, and IGNOU’s evaluators decide all marks.