Once upon a time agents were getting news from Media-Item that drops from portals by hack. Now agents notified by the app for news. So why Media-Item still exist?
Media items exist to release valuable intel (or items through codes) to players.
While the Media is (granted) completely useless, it also helps to serve as a message that "Hey! There's an item code in this media! Go get it!"
It was kept in the game just to act as a legacy item, which still has some limited amount of use. Alternatively, it's also still very useful to item-bomb the opposing faction's house. Lastly, it is still some free XM that is recyclable.