Experts fear the videos are being used to recruit new western Jihadis

ISIS appears to have copied the opening credits of hit TV show Homeland to introduce the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff.

Homeland opens with rough cuts between poor quality footage of news reports, CCTV, and a speech by Obama declaring: 'We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad'.

Almost identical, the prelude to the brutal Islamic State video shows Obama's reaction to the murder of US journalist James Foley, in which he states: 'We will be vigilant and we will be relentless'.

Experts have branded the technique a clear move by the extremist group to lure Western recruits using themes from popular culture that romanticise warfare and terrorism.

Dr Andreas Krieg, of the Department of Defence Studies at King's College London, told MailOnline the videos are a 'means of psychological warfare' that offer young Muslims 'the illusion to escape the rigid world of boredom'.

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Copy? The Homeland opening credits (left) uses poor-quality footage of Obama declaring 'we will remain vigiltant'. The ISIS video released yesterday (right) does the same with Obama saying: 'we will be vigilant'

'They know that these demonstrations of power when wrapped nicely can attract young Muslims and particularly young converts to Islam to join their ranks,' he said.

'To a degree they offer youngster the illusion to escape the rigid world of boredom they live in in the West. IS provides a cause to fight for and a platform to become something you are not.'

Both Homeland and the latest ISIS video - entitled A Second Message to America - have deliberately shaky camera shots and special effects to interfere with the colour balance and sound quality of the video.

They both fade in and out from President Obama with Arabic subtitles on the screen.

In the latest video broadcasting the murder of US journalist Steven Sotloff, ISIS uses a few seconds of President Obama speaking in a similar manner to the opening scenes of the hit TV series which is shown on Channel 4.

In the terrorist video, the producer uses commercially available video editing technology to mimic the the techniques used in Hollywood.

According to one video expert who spoke with MailOnline, both clips are in black and white so the colour saturation had been dropped.

'The image in Homeland flips over – the visuals in this use a scroll effect.

'In Homeland the title sequence is a stream of consciousness you see Carrie waking and sleeping. They have put a filter on the footage so it appears that it is someone else watching this.

The President is shown giving a speech addressing the threat posed by the fictional terrorists

His speech is cut into a Middle Eastern news broadcast with Arabic script at the bottom of the screen

One Twitter user believes that those behind the ISIS broadcasts are from the west

'In Homeland they use Arabic subtitles at the bottom of the screen faded into a news report. In the ISIS video the Arabic subtitles are also at the bottom of the screen beneath President Obama.

'ISIS has also put a crackle on the audio of President Obama's speech to make it sound more "edgy".'

In the Homeland excerpt President Obama is reported as saying 'we must and will' remain vigilant at home and abroad. In the ISIS version he says we "will continue to do what we must do to protect our people, we will be vigilant and we will be relentless".'

Many of the videos are produced by the Al Hayat Media Centre, which is the terrorist organisation's communications department.

According to Dr Krieg: 'They are trying to appeal to new recruits in the West. They are staging these beheadings in a particular way by using themes from popular culture – the series Homeland might come to mind.'



Sickening: Mr Obama vowed that 'justice will be served' after Steven Sotloff (pictured) was killed on video

Threatened: This image is believed to show ISIS militant Jihadi John and the British hostage he has threatened to murder next. The video was released two weeks to the day another video showing the execution of American journalist James Foley was released online

Dr Krieg said one of the benefits for ISIS in showing these executions is that it has a psychological impact on their opponents.



The extremist group now presides over a mass of land equivalent to the size of the UK, from Aleppo to central Iraq, and controls at least four million people.



He said: 'The fact that Iraqi Army units abandoned their posts in Mosul in June shows that IS succeeded in spreading fear. They have built a reputation of being ruthless. In this respect these videos are a means of psychological warfare.

'Third, these videos are a direct means of communication with the West. They want to outrage Western publics and governments to lure them into taking a more active role in Iraq and Syria. It is a bait that the West should refrain from taking.'



Another murder: It comes just two weeks after another video showing the beheading of another U.S. reporter, James Foley, was released by the Islamic State

In the ISIS version, the President's voice is distorted slightly by a cackling sound to make it more 'edgy'

The ISIS version also deliberately interferes with the image, taking away the colour, copying a TV drama

The ISIS video also uses an Arabic script subtitle at the bottom of the screen, partly as a branding exercise

Video released Tuesday by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) showed American journalist Steven Sotloff (L) next to an unknown jihadi shortly before his execution by beheading

He continued: 'Because the more the West gets directly involved in the Muslim World the more they will alienate local Muslims. IS will then use this alienation to get support from these rather moderate Muslims. As soon as IS can make a case that the West is the near enemy in the Muslim World, the more dangerous the ideology of IS becomes for the West. The reason is that they will give IS legitimacy in continuing their otherwise very un-Islamic jihad.'

Dr Krieg said he feels the most video is 'an act of desperation' on behalf of ISIS as most people have rejected their ideology.