Teachers and educators play a vital role in shaping the digital skills and compentencies of young people. At European level there is a strong belief that education and training are key instruments in the development of digital skills and competences for being a citizen in the 21st century. At the school level, teachers and educators are increasingly confronted by children bringing the online world into their schools and classrooms, while most teachers lack sufficient insight in how their students use social media.

But are teachers and educators adequately equipped to deal with the needs of the classroom in the Digital Age? This study aims to present the needs analysis for the teachers training in digital media literacy in Western of Romania. The participants in this research were 95 respondents (in pre-service teachers and educators) from a university in Western part of Romania. The method used is a descriptive quantitative approach with data collection techniques using a questionnaire.

The results of our study show that teachers' digital media literacy level is limited and quite basic. These results are the same way as European statistics, which demonstrates striking differences amongst countries. A persistent divide exists between and within EU Member States. The southern and eastern countries, the lower the digital media literacy rate.

In order to ensure the effective development of digital media literacy and the ability to tackle disinformation through the education and training process, teachers and educators need to be further supported with guidance and hands-on examples. It is therefore an important task for society to ensure that teachers have the competences to effectively engage with young people when teaching how to tackle disinformation and develop digital media literacy.

Keywords: Digital media literacy, teachers, training, digital skills.