If, in addition, the point of the discussion was to try to determine the truth of something, this could be seen as within the domain of Systems-Oriented Social Epistemology (for one discussion, fas-philosophy.rutgers.edu/goldman/Systems-Oriented%20Social%20Epistemology.pdf - article by Alvin I Goldman). I.e. the effect of various communication protocols, media technologies, fads (such as forwarding anonymous emails), social media designs, peer review regimes, etc. on tendencies to converge on truths. To me it seems like the most interesting sort of question in epistemology, and the most likely have a real impact on practical affairs. Hal. http://therealtruthproject.blogspot.com/2010/04/practical-epistemology.html