I need you....to converse with me.

Shane Richmond, Communities Editor of telegraph.co.uk, advised patience and perseverance when creating a blogging audience. He talked about two kinds of blog followings; one that is broad and shallow with a generalised audience, the other, a deep and narrow following that speaks to a specific audience.

Clearly my blog is the latter. Currently I have ten followers. They all have one common interest: Cardiff Journalism School's Online Journalism module. This is what I blog about. For narrow bloggers, like me, Shane outlined the need to create argument and debate with which followers can interact and comment on. I am not begging, yet. However, please feel free to comment and express your opinion below.

Shane's lecture went on to talk about legality and the issue of freedom of speech that surrounds blogs and the debates in relation to telegraph.co.uk's My Telegraph section of the website.

Shane Richmond giving a lecture to his Telegraph Colleagues

My Telegraph is a section of telegraph.co.uk, which gives users a platform to create their own blog. This presents Shane and his employers with a potential legal headache. In order to avoid the legal problems, The Telegraph doesn't read the blogs posted in My Telegraph, unless a reader brings it to their attention. They do, however, place a legal warning disclaimer that bloggers have to accept before they publish.

Is this responsible journalism?

Potentially, their approach could lead to blogs promoting a number of extreme opinions using The Telegraph's renowned banner as a platform. Some would argue that allowing BNP councillor, Richard Barnbrook to blog on My Telegraph is an example of this lack of responsibility. The Telegraph's defence is that their readers are entitled to their opinions as long as they are within the law.

Even so, titles like, 'Blame the immigrants', and quotes in reference to crime, like, 'most of it is being done by immigrants or by the sons of immigrants', are legal but they are clearly going to aggravate extremists. It would leave any cooperation in a sticky situation.

I don't agree with anything Richard Barnbrook has to say and I don't necessarily agree with the political leaning of 'The Telegraph' either. I believe, however, that 'The Telegraph' made the right decision in allowing Barnbrook's blog to continue.

If you silence Barnbrook, where do you stop?

Just because you do not agree with a opinion, it does not mean you should block it. Freedom of Speech is a key corner stone of democracy. We talked earlier in the course about the Internet's potential to aid democracy.

I talked in my previous post, 'Democracy and Anarchy?', about the danger that uncontrolled sites like CNN's ireport could lead to, while praising the BBC's 'Have your Say' website that checks all audience contributions. I think My Telegraph strikes a happy medium with their approach. They allow more freedom then the BBC but will punish anyone who over-steps the mark.

The blog community that Shane controls reflects a good and healthy real life community. Maybe he is Britain's answer to Barack Obama.

I think most of my colleagues will agree with me on that. Won't they?

IMAGES - 'speakers corner concessions' courtesy of uktrip2006pt, from flickr.com, 'Barack Obama' courtesy of Baonguyen from flickr.com, 'presenting' courtesy of telegraph media group from flickr.com.